THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


HARVARD  STUDIES  IN  EDUCATION 

PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF 
THE  DIVISION  OF  EDUCATION 

VOLUME  I 


THE  OBERLEHRER 

A  STUDY  OF  THE  SOCIAL  AND 
PROFESSIONAL  EVOLUTION  OF 
THE  GERMAN  SCHOOLMASTER 


BY 


WILLIAM  SETCHEL  LEARNED,  PH.D. 

OF  THE  CARNEGIE  FOUNDATION  FOR  THE 
ADVANCEMENT  OF  TEACHING 


CAMBRIDGE 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:  HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

1914 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
HARVARD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


Education 
Library 

!  A 
72.5' 

U>  M'lo 
FOREWORD 

WITH  this  volume  the  Division  of  Education  at  Harvard 
University  inaugurates  a  series  of  publications  to  be  called 
the  HARVARD  STUDIES  IN  EDUCATION.  It  is  a  happy  cir- 
cumstance that  Dr.  Learned's  study  of  the  social  and  pro- 
fessional evolution  of  the  German  schoolmaster  should  be 
the  first  contribution  to  this  series;  for  the  series  has  no 
other  aim  than  to  forward  in  some  measure  among  American 
teachers  that  ideal  of  professional  freedom  through  pro- 
fessional mastery  which  Dr.  Learned  here  discloses  as  the 
goal  of  the  long  upward  struggle  of  the  Oberlehrer.  The 
volumes  of  the  HARVARD  STUDIES  IN  EDUCATION  will  be 
chosen  for  their  probable  usefulness  to  those  teachers,  school 
officers,  and  others  who  are  trying  to  win  intelligent  control 
over  the  complex  and  difficult  problems  of  American  Edu- 
cation. 

HENRY  W.  HOLMES 
PAUL  H.  HANUS 
ERNEST  C.  MOORE 

Committee  on  Publication. 


873271 


TO  MY  SISTER  THIS  LITTLE  BOOK 
A  BY-PRODUCT  OF  HER  FAITH  IS 
INSCRIBED  WITH  ALL  AFFECTION 


INTRODUCTION 

IT  is  probably  true  that  the  greatest  desire  of  every  serious 
student  of  American  education  is  to  see  the  business  of  teach- 
ing American  youth  placed  on  an  unquestioned  professional 
basis.  His  vision  is  of  a  time  when  the  teacher  who  shapes 
our  careers  shall  be  even  more  rigorously  selected,  more 
amply  and  purposefully  trained,  and  more  highly  responsible 
for  his  performance  than  he  who  mends  our  bodies  or  un- 
tangles our  personal  relations.  And  this  is  no  utterly  forlorn 
hope.  To  be  sure,  such  a  consummation  awaits  not  only  the 
gradual  unfolding  and  organization  of  our  knowledge  for  the 
purpose;  it  awaits  also  that  slow  shift  hi  judgment  and 
conviction  that  marks  the  spiritual  growth  and  refinement  of 
a  people.  Happily  both  of  these  movements  are  to-day  in 
unmistakably  vigorous  career  in  this  country.  From  the  one 
there  is  steadily  gathering  a  conclusive  content  for  training; 
a  settled,  scientific  technique  capable  of  producing  definite 
and  reliable  results;  from  the  other  is  rising  with  marked 
rapidity  and  certainty  a  general  public  sanction  which  alone, 
by  provision  for  adequate  reward,  can  make  a  high  standard 
for  the  preparation  of  teachers  effective. 

In  view  of  such  evident  progress  at  home,  it  is  cheering  and 
instructive  to  follow  a  similar  and  already  more  complete 
evolution  in  another  nation  where  conditions  of  growth  have 
favored  a  more  normal  development  than  in  this  country. 
It  was  the  writer's  privilege  to  spend  somewhat  less  than 
two  years  in  the  German  states  of  Prussia,  Saxony,  and 
Baden  under  circumstances  that  brought  him  into  frequent 
and  ultimate  contact  with  many  representative  secondary 


x  INTRODUCTION 

schools  and  school-teachers.  The  experience  impressed  upon 
him,  as  it  has  upon  many  other  American  observers,  some 
astonishing,  and  at  first  frankly  discouraging,  contrasts. 
As  his  stay  was  prolonged,  however,  increased  acquaintance 
had  indeed  the  effect  of  deepening  his  admiration  for  the 
great  and  thoroughly  sincere  achievement  of  German  educa- 
tion, but  it  also  disclosed  the  whole  history  of  that  achieve- 
ment as  possessing  extraordinary  interest  and  no  little 
inspiration  for  America.  The  brief  account  here  presented 
makes  no  pretension  of  adding  material  details  to  the  Ameri- 
can student's  knowledge  of  German  education.  The  writer 
has  tried  rather  to  seize,  in  but  one  of  its  phases,  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  German  development,  to  interpret  its  spirit, 
and  to  discern  its  more  general  applications,  having  ever 
hi  mind  the  contribution  that  he  would  gladly  make  to  the 
better  understanding  and  guidance  of  our  own  educational 
future. 

Of  obligations  to  be  acknowledged  in  the  preparation  of 
this  monograph  the  foremost  is  due  to  the  dean  of  educational 
historians  and  philosophers,  the  late  Friedrich  Paulsen. 
Familiarity  with  his  written  works  had  long  been  a  satisfac- 
tion, and  his  death  shortly  before  the  author's  arrival  hi 
Berlin  came  as  an  irreparable  disappointment.  In  his  Ges- 
chichte  des  gelehrten  Unterrichts  Paulsen  has  followed  the 
course  of  German  education  with  most  remarkable  lucidity 
through  a  wealth  and  pertinence  of  illustration  that  furnishes 
a  continual  surprise.  From  these,  appropriate  selections 
have  here  been  freely  borrowed,  whenever,  as  often  occurred, 
the  sources  themselves  were  inaccessible.  It  is  a  matter  for 
regret  that  at  least  a  portion  of  this  illuminating  and  wholly 
readable  book  has  not  been  made  generally  available  hi 
translation. 

Professor  Otto  Michael  of  Berlin  and  Professor  Alexander 
Bennewitz  of  Leipsic  gave  timely  suggestions  and  assistance 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

that  are  gratefully  acknowledged.  In  revising  the  manu- 
script and  preparing  it  for  printing  Professor  Henry  W. 
Holmes  of  Harvard  University  has  given  generously  both 
indispensable  criticism  and  advice;  to  him  and  to  my  friend 
Mrs.  Harriet  White  Blake  of  Providence  the  treatment  owes 
much  of  whatever  comeliness  it  may  possess. 

WILLIAM  S.  LEARNED. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

FIRST  PERIOD,  TO  1750;  THE  SCHOOLMASTER 

PAGE 

1.  THE  SCHOOLMASTER  BEFORE  1500 3 

2.  THE  REFORMATION  SCHOOLMASTER,  1500-1600 14 

3.  THE  PEDANT  SCHOOLMASTER,  1600-1750 26 

CHAPTER  II 

SECOND  PERIOD,  1750-1871;    THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER 

1.  THE  GREEK  REVIVAL 31 

2.  REMAKING  THE  SCHOOLMASTER 38 

3.  BEGINNINGS  OF  AN  OBERLEHRERSTAND 42 

4.  THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER 51 

5-    PmLOLOGIE   UNO  PmLOLOG 55 

6.  "  FORMAL  DISCIPLINE  " 63 

CHAPTER  III 

THIRD  PERIOD,  SINCE  1871;  THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER 

1.  NEW  MOTIVES 67 

2.  EDUCATIONAL  READJUSTMENT 73 

3.  ECONOMIC  AND  SOCIAL  ADVANCEMENT 86 

CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  AND  ITS  PROFESSIONAL 
SIGNIFICANCE 

1.  FEATURES  OF  PRUSSIAN  SCHOOL  ORGANIZATION  THAT  PROMOTE 

SOLIDARITY 94 

2.  PROFESSIONAL  ORGANIZATION 101 

CHAPTER  V 

SUMMARY      120 

tffl 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VI 
AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS 

PAGE 

1.  PROFESSIONAL  TRAINING 124 

2.  CONDITIONS  OF  SERVICE 132 

3.  PROFESSIONAL  ORGANIZATION  AND  ADVANCEMENT 141 

BIBLIOGRAPHY '. 146 


THE   OBERLEHRER 


THE    OBERLEHRER 

CHAPTER  I 

FIRST  PERIOD,  TO  1750 

THE  SCHOOLMASTER 
i.    The  Schoolmaster  before  1500 

EDUCATION  since  the  Middle  Ages  owes  the  initial  forms  of 
its  organization  to  the  church.  The  life  of  a  human  insti- 
tution as  of  a  human  individual  presses  instinctively  and 
persistently  toward  self-preservation.  The  church  is  no  ex- 
ception; she  early  found  the  perpetuation  of  her  doctrines  and 
traditions  the  capital  problem  of  her  existence,  and  devised  a 
system  of  schooling  that  served  her  purpose  and  became  an 
indispensable  phase  of  her  activity.  It  was  natural,  there- 
fore, that  when  all  spiritual  institutions  but  the  church  had 
been  swept  away  in  the  flood  of  a  vigorous  but  untutored 
humanity  bursting  in  from  the  North,  she  should  cling  with 
especial  tenacity  to  her  schools  as  to  the  very  condition  of  her 
life.  Hence  we  find  in  the  monk  or  canon  who  taught  the 
language  and  mysteries  of  the  church  to  rough  novitiates,  a 
figure  of  unusual  dignity  and  significance.  Representative 
of  a  powerful  and  well-organized  institution  wielding  the 
supreme  authority  of  earth  and  heaven,  his  position  was 
secure  and  influential,  and  his  prospects  for  promotion  and 
honors  unsurpassed. 

As  higher  instruction  was  gradually  developed  and 
organized  into  universities,  the  old  cathedral  schools  over 
which  the  ancient  scholasticus  or  cathedral  schoolmaster  had 
presided,  assumed  little  by  little  the  role  of  secondary  and 


4  THE   OBERLEHRER 

preparatory  institutions.  As  their  relative  prestige  de- 
clined, however,  their  number  largely  increased.  With  the 
growth  of  population  churches  multiplied  rapidly,  and  with 
each  church  a  school  was  usually  established,  subject,  like 
the  church,  to  the  central  control  of  the  cathedral.  Thus 
by  the  fifteenth  century  Cologne  had  as  many  as  eleven  such 
schools  —  enough  to  constitute  a  respectable  school-system.1 
In  the  process  of  this  transition  the  powers  of  the  scholasticus 
were  steadily  enlarged  until  that  dignitary  appears  clothed  in 
all  the  prerogatives  of  the  modern  school  superintendent, 
with  jealously  guarded  rights  of  supervision,  certification, 
and  appointment.  A  liberal  share  of  the  tuition  of  each  boy 
in  the  schools  under  his  charge  flows  into  his  private  purse. 
On  the  other  hand  he  remains  a  permanent  and  distinguished 
official  of  the  church.  He  is  even  eligible  to  the  bishopric  in 
his  diocese,  and  not  seldom  receives  it.  Between  the  per- 
sonage the  scholasticus  has  now  become  and  the  schoolmaster 
who  is  the  subject  of  this  chapter  there  is  little  in  common. 
The  latter  is  rather  the  humble  appointee  who  bears  the 
burdens,  but  passes  on  an  undue  portion  of  the  reward  to 
his  patron  above. 

In  addition  to  the  cathedral  schools,  two  other  slightly 
varying  types  of  school  were  available  to  satisfy  the  me- 
diaeval demand  for  instruction.  Of  these  the  cloister  schools 
were  similar  in  spirit  and  program  to  the  cathedral  schools, 
but  remained  single  institutions  attached  to  the  monastic 
foundations.  The  second  type,  the  town  schools,  like  the 
universities,  were  the  creation  of  the  later  Middle  Ages. 
They  rose  from  small  beginnings  in  the  thirteenth  century  in 
all  centres  where  growing  commercial  and  secular  interests 
stimulated  the  impulse  toward  independent  control  of  com- 
mon education.  They,  too,  were  closely  similar  to  the 
church  schools  in  character,  but  were  likely  to  be  more 

1  Kaemmel,  Gesch.  d.  d.  Schulwesens,  pp.  17,  18,  120  ff. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  5 

elementary.  Their  chief  importance  lies  in  the  fact  that 
over  them  was  fought  out  the  struggle  between  the  town  and 
church  authorities.  This  crucial  question  of  control  and 
supervision,  of  nomination  and  appointment  of  teachers, 
involved  very  many  German  cities  in  the  bitterest  dissension 
for  many  years,  though  in  the  end  the  town  almost  invariably 
made  good  its  claim. 

These  three  types  of  school,  the  cathedral  or  church  school, 
the  monastery  school,  and  the  town  school,  are  the  institu- 
tions in  which  the  youth  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  centuries  received  its  preparation  for  the  university. 
The  lower  classes  in  each  supplied  those  not  destined  for 
advanced  studies  with  whatever  general  education  they 
received.  Schools  for  teaching  the  vernacular  alone  also 
existed,1  and  constituted  the  beginning  of  the  elementary 
school  system,  but  with  these  we  are  not  here  concerned. 
With  this  brief  orientation  in  mind  let  us  proceed  to  note  the 
particular  conditions  that  a  fourteenth  century  scholar- 
schoolmaster  was  called  upon  to  satisfy,  and  then  observe 
the  kind  of  individual  available  to  fill  the  position. 

TTtc      TTinr>'Hrvna      TTTOI-O      -f/^iTr*        o/^mimef  ret  tiirf*        <v1iir>ai"i/Yn«>l       ^^^^ 


His  functions  were  four:  administrative,  educational, 
disciplinary,  and  religious.  As  ^administrator)  he  was  in 
fact  "  master  "  of  the  school.  Appointed  by'thsscholasticus, 
or  hi  the  case  of  the  town  school,  by  the  town  council  for  a 
single  year  or  even  for  but  three  months,  he  was  hi  the  posi- 
tion rather  of  a  concessionaire  having  well-defined  rights, 
than  of  a  public  servant  pledged  to  certain  duties.  The  school 
was  his  enterprise  to  be  carried  on  under  given  regulations 
for  the  profit  there  was  in  it,  much  as  one  might  hire  and 
operate  a  public  mill.  So  long  as  the  social  order  was  pre- 
served and  he  proved  tolerable  to  the  parents  he  was  usually 
undisturbed  by  inspection.  To  be  sure,  he  received  a  small 
salary  which,  if  from  the  town  council,  might  be  considered 

1  Lewin,  Gesch.  d.  Ent.  d.  preus.  Volksschule,  p.  2. 


6  THE  OBERLEHRER 

a  return  for  his  services  as  town  clerk;  if  paid  by  the  scholas- 
ticus,  it  pledged  him  to  diligent  cooperation  in  the  service  of 
the  church.  In  either  case  this  salary  was  insignificant,  as 
he  was  likely  to  have  been  the  lowest  bidder.  His  further 
revenue  came  from  the  school  entirely,  either  in  fees  or  in 
tuition.  Toward  the  close  of  the  period  the  authorities  took 
a  hand  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  school  through  Schul- 
ordnungen  and  the  appointment  of  inspectors,  but  this 
indicates  the  growing  influence  of  Humanism.  As  propri- 
etor, then,  the  rector  scholarum,  as  he  was  usually  called, 
presided  over  the  school-house,  together  with  the  rooms 
above  where  he  and  his  assistants  made  their  home.  The 
latter,  he  hired  and  paid  himself,  with  the  exception  of  the 
cantor  who  because  of  his  intimate  connection  with  the 
church  services  was  usually  appointed  by  the  church  or  town 
council.  Subject  to  certain  conditions  laid  down  by  his 
superiors,  he  regulated  the  internal  affairs  of  the  school;  he 
collected  fees  and  tuition,  attended  to  repairs  and  improve- 
ments, and  was  the  responsible  head  of  the  business. 

Educationally  his  task  was  a  simple  one  compared  with 
that  of  securing  a  favorable  balance  in  cash.  The  latter 
required  skill;  the  former  did  not.  Latin  was  almost  the 
sole  subject  of  study.  It  was  the  language  of  the  church 
and  of  the  university;  therefore  the  aim  of  the  school  was 
fundamentally  to  put  a  boy  into  possession  of  a  reasonable 
facility  in  the  use  of  this  medium  of  all  his  subsequent  learn- 
ing. In  the  total  absence  of  printed  text-books,  the  method 
resolved  itself  into  a  verbal  memorization  of  the  grammar, 
a  vigorous  drill  in  examples  of  the  rules,  and  transcription 
of  the  text  from  dictation.  Anyone  who  had  been  through 
the  performance,  who  had  memorized  the  grammar  and 
examples,  and  had  transcribed  sufficient  texts,  was  beyond 
doubt  familiar  with  the  method  and  could  "  teach,"  i.  e. 
pronounce  the  matter,  either  from  memory  or  from  the  book, 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  7 

and  hear  his  words  come  back  to  him.  To  hasten  the  pro- 
cess, German  was  forbidden  in  the  schoolroom.  Conse- 
quently, no  one  could  fail  to  work  out  a  Latin  dialect  of 
some  degree  of  intelligibility.  Such  was  the  procedure,  and 
whether  it  were  the  "  tabulistae  "  at  their  first  lines  of  the 
Lord's  Prayer  in  the  lowest  class,  or  the  "  Alexandristae  " 
finishing  the  Doctrinale  in  the  upper,  it  was  always  the  same. 
With  a  bit  of  versification  achieved  by  the  older  boys  with 
the  help  of  word  lists  and  syllabaries,  and  a  taste  of  arith- 
metic for  the  sake  of  reckoning  church  festivals,  the  curri- 
culum was  complete.  No  German,  no  history,  no  geography, 
no  nature-study  appears,  except  as  the  rare  contribution  of 
some  unusually  original  and  gifted  master. 

In  respect  to  discipline,  the  duties  of  the  master  were  more 
exacting.  The  harshness  of  the  times,  the  lack  of  genuine 
intellectual  training,  the  absence  of  any  appeal  to  interest  or 
self-control  on  the  part  of  the  pupil,  all  appear  strikingly  in 
the  severity  of  punishment  to  which  apparently  even  the 
best  masters  resorted.  Martin  Luther  reports  having  been 
soundly  thrashed  fifteen  times  in  one  day.1  He  could  with 
reason,  therefore,  cry  out  against  the  numbers  of  "  bungling 
schoolmasters  who  with  their  storming  and  blustering,  their 
cuffs  and  blows  ruined  fine  natures,  and  treated  children  as 
the  jailer  treats  thieves."  2  A  passage  in  the  Stuttgart 
Schulordnung  for  1501,  provides  that  fresh  rods  be  brought 
in  by  the  children  from  the  forest  every  week.3  For  these 
there  was  doubtless  abundant  need  in  settling  up  the  daily 
and  weekly  accounts  of  the  "  asinus  "  and  "  lupus."  The 
former  was  a  wooden  image  of  an  ass  hung  about  the  neck 
of  the  class  dunce  in  the  morning  and  passed  by  him  to  any 
one  heard  to  talk  German;  this  meant  a  whipping  for  the 

1  Schmidt,  Gesch.  der  Padagogik,  iii,  p.  26. 

1  Ibid. 

3  Miiller,  Vor-und  friih-reformatorische  Schulordnungen,  p.  133. 


8  THE  OBERLEHRER 

one  in  whose  possession  it  remained  at  the  end  of  that  day. 
The  lupus  was  a  pupil  especially  appointed  to  watch  for 
those  guilty  of  the  same  offence  and  to  report  them  to  the 
master.  The  necessity  for  strenuous  measures  of  discipline 
appears  in  the  provisions  for  the  assistance  of  the  master  by 
the  town  constables  in  time  of  need.1  Punishments  for 
parents  and  others  who  injure  or  insult  the  schoolmaster 
point  to  the  same  conditions.2  But  the  supervisory  duty 
of  the  rector  scholarum  was  not  confined  to  the  school.  Day 
and  night  the  pupils  were  subject  to  his  authority,  especially 
such  as  were  not  at  home  in  the  town  —  a  condition  applying 
to  an  astonishing  number  of  "  wandering  scholars  "  who 
begged  their  way  from  town  to  town  seeking  shelter  and 
support  with  the  citizens  or  actually  living  in  the  school. 
This  was  an  energetic  and  often  troublesome  element. 

The  fourth  phase  of  the  schoolmaster's  activity,  men- 
tioned above,  was  the  religious.  This  feature  is,  perhaps 
the  most  difficult  for  one  with  the  modern  point  of  view  to 
reconstruct.  The  original  nucleus  of  the  church  schools,  and 
of  the  town  schools  as  well,  had  been  the  choir  which  at- 
tended the  numerous  religious  services  and  contributed 
indispensable  assistance.  As  the  school  developed,  its 
exercises  remained  inextricably  involved  with  those  of  the 
church.  Its  continued  practice  of  singing  under  the  charge 
of  a  special  officer,  the  cantor,  was  solely  for  the  church's 
benefit.  The  hours  for  school  exercises  were  carefully 
planned,  and  often  greatly  curtailed,  to  suit  the  needs  of  the 
church.  The  claims  of  weddings,  funerals,  masses  and  so  on, 
were  for  centuries  given  precedence  in  the  school  program. 
Tradition  was  here  the  more  binding  because  upon  these 
performances  there  depended  no  inconsiderable  portion  of 
the  rector's  income,  as  well  as  that  of  his  assistants.  It 

1  Fischer,  Geschkkte  des  deutschen  Volksschullehrerstandes,  i,  p.  29. 
*  M tiller,  op.  tit.,  pp.  131  ff. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  9 

became  his  personal  duty,  then,  to  marshal  his  boys  and 
teachers  for  the  processions,  and  to  arrange  for  their  singing 
at  all  festivals  as  well  as  to  appear  as  disciplinarian  at  the 
regular  services.  An  extract  given  by  Kaemmel,  from  an  en- 
dowment of  1449  for  the  church  of  Mary  Magdalene  at 
Breslau,  indicates  what  the  extraordinary  demands  on  the 
choir  of  a  popular  church  might  amount  to,  even  in  the  case 
of  a  single  foundation.  Of  the  rector  and  his  assistants  it  was 
required : 

that  on  the  day  before  Corpus  Christi  they  and  their  pupils  should 
sing  the  vespers  and  matins  complete,  including  the  thanksgiving 
hymns;  on  Saturday  of  that  week,  and  on  the  day  before  the  feast 
of  John  the  Baptist,  when  on  a  week-day,  they  should  sing  matins 
complete;  it  was  expected  further  that  on  Corpus  Christi,  on  the 
Sunday  following,  and  on  the  Johannistag  falling  within  this  octave, 
they  should  sing  the  third  horary  service,  and  on  every  day  of  this 
week,  a  complete  mass.1 

It  might  be  added  that  this  church  had  fifty-eight  altars  and 
one  hundred  and  twenty-four  chaplains,  and  that  the  number 
of  masses  to  be  said  was  unusually  large. 

This  program  indicates  that  the  life  of  a  successful  school- 
master of  this  period  would  not,  at  least,  be  lacking  in  variety. 
We  now  proceed  to  note  what  manner  of  man  fills  this  posi- 
tion. 

First,  as  to  training.  Kaemmel  estimates2  that  after 
the  fourteenth  century,  about  one  third  of  these  school- 
masters possessed  the  degree  of  magister  from  some  univer- 
sity, another  third  had  reached  the  preliminary  title  of 
baccalareus,  while  the  remainder  had  had  little  or  no  univer- 
sity instruction.  In  the  cities,  certainly  by  1500,  the  higher 
degree  was  very  generally  required  for  an  appointment  as 
rector.3  This  meant  that  for  the  space  of  from  three  to  four 

1  Kaemmel,  op.  cit.,  p.  126. 

*  Op.  cit.,  p.  125. 

3  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  gelekrten  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  19. 


10  THE  OBERLEHRER 

years  its  possessor  had  listened  to  the  exposition  of  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy,  comprising  logic  and  physics  for  the 
degree  of  baccalareus,  natural  science,  psychology,  meta- 
physics, ethics,  and  politics  for  the  magister  artium;  that 
he  had  participated  in  the  customary  disputations,  and 
displayed  his  skill  and  erudition  hi  a  final  exhibition  which 
constituted  the  examination.1  The  classical  literature  had 
been  practically  untouched,  and  even  the  study  of  grammar 
had  ceased  with  his  own  school  preparation  for  the  sciences 
of  the  university.  The  mistake  of  thus  abandoning  subjects 
that  he  would  later  undertake  to  teach  was  not  recognized. 
The  magister  was  a  theologue,  and  if  he  had  completed  his 
two  years  of  teaching  at  the  university,  as  was  often 
required,  he  had  doubtless  done  advanced  work  at  the  same 
time  in  the  theological  faculty.  His  occupation  as  rector 
scholarum  in  a  city  Latin  school  was  a  purely  secondary 
consideration,  undertaken  to  bridge  the  gap  between  his 
university  course  and  his  expected  appointment  to  a  parish 
where  he  would  enter  upon  his  proper  career.  It  was 
natural  for  him,  therefore,  even  while  schoolmaster,  to  take 
an  active  part  in  the  services  of  the  church,  and  in  case  he 
had  received  the  preliminary  consecration,  to  perform  also 
the  function  of  priest. 

In  the  larger  schools  the  rector  might  require  several 
assistants,  baccalarii,  soccii,  locati  collaboratores,  as  they  are 
variously  called.  The  baccalarii,  as  the  name  indicates, 
would  be  such  as  had  attained  the  first  degree  at  a  university, 
and  might  be  waiting  for  a  favorable  opportunity  to  continue. 
The  locati  had  rarely  seen  a  university;  if  not  simply  older 
pupils  receiving  instruction  in  the  higher  classes  at  the  same 
time,  they  were  likely  to  be  chosen  from  the  numerous  class 
of  strolling  scholars,  seeking  to  turn  their  scanty  acquire- 
ments to  account.  These  sub-masters  were  naturally  hired 

1  Norton,  Mediaeval  Universities,  pp.  135  ff. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  II 

at  a  minimum  salary;  they  were  housed  with  the  rector  in 
the  school  building,  and  might  be  boarded  at  the  home  of 
some  citizen.  They  were  generally  of  an  unreliable  character, 
were  continually  changing,  and  not  seldom  required  dis- 
ciplinary treatment  at  the  hands  of  the  rector  or  town 
authorities. 

The  income  attached  to  the  teacher's  position  in  this 
period  appears  to  have  been  universally  small  and  uncertain. 
The  only  guaranteed  amount  was  the  appropriation  for  the 
scholasticus  or  the  Schulrat  as  mentioned  above;  by  far  the 
larger  portion  had  to  be  painfully  collected  as  it  trickled  in, 
a  groschen  at  a  time,  in  fixed  tuition  charges,  customary 
fees,  or  alms  thrown  to  the  choir  boys  in  the  street.  Cost  of 
tuition  varied  greatly.  In  Liineburg,  1482,  the  wealthy 
paid  fourteen  shillings,  or  about  twenty-eight  cents,  a  year; 
the  poor,  half  as  much.1  At  Hanover  four  shillings  sufficed.2 
In  Frankfort-on-the-Oder,  the  wealthy  brought  two  gro- 
schen per  quarter  (not  over  four  cents)  to  the  schoolmaster, 
and  as  much  to  the  locati.  In  Nuremberg  in  1485  all  special 
fees  were  commuted  to  a  cash  payment  of  twenty-five 
pfennige  (about  six  cents)  in  place  of  the  previous  fifteen 
pfennige  for  tuition  alone;  the  town  authorities  agreed  at 
the  same  time  to  furnish  the  wood  for  heating.3  The  fees 
that  thereby  disappeared  were  a  general  tradition  and  were 
not  peculiar  to  Nuremberg.  They  included  sums  brought 
by  the  pupil  in  substitution  for  the  still  earlier  offering  of  a 
candle,  a  stick  of  wood,  or  a  piece  of  paper  to  repair  the 
window;  further,  there  was  the  fee  for  the  New  Year,  for  the 
cherry-stones  brought  to  the  master  to  put  in  his  beer,  and, 
finally,  the  Austreibgeld,  —  a  fee  in  honor  of  an  approach- 
ing vacation,  which  was  acknowledged  by  the  master  with  a 
friendly  spank  as  the  child  crawled  between  his  legs  after  the 

1  Kaemmel,  op.  cil.,  p.  127.  *  Ibid. 

1  Miiller,  op.  cit.,  p.  104. 


12  THE  OBERLEHRER 

final  session.1  This  host  of  petty  payments  must  have 
made  the  master's  bookkeeping  a  complicated  task.  His 
board  he  frequently  had  with  the  parish  priest,  or  with  a 
citizen  of  the  town,  or  he  supplied  his  table  from  payments 
in  food  as  commutation  for  tuition.  The  endowments  of 
the  church  that  were  available  as  fees  for  regular  and  special 
services  often  proved  more  profitable  than  any  other  source 
of  revenue,  and  of  course  served  to  bind  the  school  closely 
to  its  parent  institution. 

In  respect  to  social  position  the  standing  of  the  teacher 
was  in  a  sense  neutral.  An  able  rector,  teaching  for  a  few 
years  until  he  received  his  appointment  to  the  secure  and 
respected  office  of  priest,  was  not  altogether  to  be  pitied. 
Many  of  the  apparently  forlorn  conditions  of  the  position 
were  characteristic  of  the  time  as  a  whole.  Still  the  work 
was  not  enviable,  as  is  shown  by  the  continual  change  in 
personnel;  and  when  engaged  in  permanently  by  disappoin- 
ted aspirants  to  the  priesthood,  or  by  non-clerical  teachers 
who  sought  thus  to  support  their  families,  it  was  commonly 
associated  with  poverty,  if  not  utter  misery.  Thus  Thomas 
Platter  found  it  quite  insufficient  for  his  maintenance,  and 
resorted  to  his  rope-making  and  printing  instead.  The 
excessive  publicity  of  the  post,  its  exposure  to  criticism,  and 
its  uncertain  returns  made  an  early  change  desirable,  and 
this  very  instability  of  tenure  reacted  in  still  further  reducing 
the  position  in  public  esteem.  Now  and  then  fortune  seems 
to  have  furnished  a  favorable  exit,  through  the  schoolmas- 
ter's position  as  town  clerk,  into  the  service  of  the  city,  and 
there  appear  occasional  cases  of  schoolmasters  who  ulti- 
mately became  the  mayors  of  their  towns.2 

The  question  of  what  might  be  termed,  in  a  modern  sense, 
the  inner  efficiency  of  the  teacher,  does  not  exist  at  this 
period.  To  the  modern  view,  all  the  conditions  under  which 

1  Kacmmel,  op.  cit.,  pp.  127  ff.  *  Op.  til.,  p.  130. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  13 

he  worked  should  have  made  him  as  weak,  unhappy,  and 
inefficient  as  possible.  Yet  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  did. 
The  modern  organic,  subjective,  ideal  view  of  the  world 
must  give  place  here  to  the  completely  static,  objective,  and 
mechanical  constitution  of  things  as  they  appeared  to  the 
mediaeval  mind.  As  has  been  pointed  out,  the  school- 
master was,  in  a  sense,  the  proprietor  of  a  purely  business 
undertaking.  The  knowledge  he  had  to  dispense  was  doled 
out  in  easily  measured  quantities  of  a  recognized  standard 
quality,  and  could  be  passed  over  the  counter  by  a  diligent 
locatus  almost  as  well  as  by  the  rector  himself.  For  his 
profession  the  schoolmaster  had  no  abstract  ideals  and  needed 
none.  As  Paulsen  remarks  of  the  university  teacher:  "  He 
had  learned  the  trade  as  apprentice  and  journeyman,  and 
had  become  a  master  mechanic;  it  was  now  his  business  to 
teach  what  he  had  learned."  l 

The  details  of  this  early  period  have  been  surveyed  in 
somewhat  greater  fullness  than  the  relative  importance 
of  the  period  itself  would  warrant.  There  appear  here, 
however,  in  their  elementary  and  crudest  form,  certain 
features  in  the  relations  of  the  person  and  function  of  the 

schoolmaster  that  persist,  with  slight  variations,  well  into    ^ •"(«/ 

the  eighteenth  century,  and  become  characteristic  oJL_the 
entire  early  portion  of  his  career.  The  first  of  these  is  the 
teacher's  connection  with  the  church  and  his  dependence  (\\ 
upon  it.  It  was  Friedrich  August  Wolf  who  put  an  end  to 
this  in  1783,  and  the  separation  was  given  the  official  seal  in 
the  examination  ordinance  of  1810.  By  reason  of  this 
connection  throughout  the  intervening  period,  the  school  is 
an  appendage  to  the  church,  an  appropriate  ante-room  for 
trying  out  the  qualities  of  the  future  priest.  As  might  be 
expected  under  such  circumstances,  the  work  of  the  teacher 
is  laborious  and  aimless,  commanding  slight  recognition  for 

1  Op.  dt.,  i,  p.  32. 


14  THE  OBERLEHRER 

its  inherent  dignity.  So  Luther  regarded  it,  and  advised 
against  it  as  a  permanent  calling;  "  —  for  the  labor  involved 
is  very  hard  and  is  esteemed  of  little  worth."  l  The  second 
feature  is  the  mechanical,  memoriter  method  of  instruction. 
This  undergoes  many  modifications,  and  the  content  of  the 
curriculum  changes  and  broadens  somewhat,  but  the  essen- 
tial spirit  of  the  Latin  instruction  of  the  eighteenth  century 
is  strongly  reminiscent  of  the  Doctrinale.  The  form  of 
discipline,  too,  remains  practically  unchanged.  The  rod 
rules  supreme  here  until  the  apostles  of  New  Humanism  see 
the  shame  of  it  and  put  it  away.  Further,  the  relation  of 
university  studies  to  school  subjects  remains  the  same. 
What  a  man  studies  in  the  university  is  of  no  use  in  the 
school,  and  what  he  does  in  the  school  he  abandons  entirely 
when  he  goes  to  the  university.  The  importance  of  this 
fact  for  those  who  prepare  to  teach  is,  of  course,  obvious. 
Finally,  the  social  position  of  the  schoolmaster  remains  in  all 
important  respects  the  same.  The  reforms  of  the  late 
eighteenth  century  lift  him  from  a  level  that  is  nearly  as  low 
as  was  that  which  he  occupied  in  the  fifteenth.  It  is  remark- 
able to  note  how  slightly  these  characteristics  alter  through 
nearly  four  hundred  years.  It  will  be  sufficient,  therefore, 
with  this  background  and  outline  to  go  rapidly  over  the  next 
two  centuries  or  more,  introducing  certain  new  elements, 
and  modifying  details  as  they  vary  with  new  conditions. 

2.    The  Reformation  Schoolmaster,  1500-1600 

The  movements  that  did  most  to  change  the  situation 
already  described,  followed  hard  upon  the  date  that  has  been 
arbitrarily  used  to  mark  the  close  of  the  Middle  Ages.  One 
of  these,  the  humanistic  revival  of  learning,  had  already 
reached  its  zenith  outside  of  Germany,  and  within  the  next 
twenty  years  came  into  full  possession  of  the  leading  German 

1  Forstemann,  Luther's  Tischreden  7,  2d  Pt.,  p.  406. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  15 

universities.  Just  as  the  promise  of  a  day  of  finer  and  freer 
intellectual  ideals  seemed  about  to  be  fulfilled,  the  new  light 
was  all  but  extinguished  in  the  sudden  religious  paroxysm 
which  seized  Germany.  For  a  tune  the  country  seemed 
lost  to  the  cause  of  the  new  learning,  but  the  peril  was  not 
real,  and  Humanism  and  Reformation  merged  into  a  great 
intellectual,  social,  and  religious  upheaval  that  turned  up 
rich  soil  for  the  seeds  of  a  later  and  finer  culture.  What  con- 
version meant  for  Teutonic  tribes  —  a  purely  formal  initia- 
tion which,  in  later  centuries,  brought  forth  scholastic 
universities  —  that  this  double  movement  meant  for  Ger- 
many, and  its  true  fruit  appeared  in  the  New  Humanism  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  With  this  in  mind  it  is  easier  to 
explain  the  relatively  low  degree  of  educational  progress 
with  which  Germany  emerges  from  the  years  of  confu- 
sion. 

The  earlier  "poet-humanists"  and  scholars  who  came 
north  were  too  restless,  too  individual,  or  too  unwilling  to 
meet  existing  conditions,  to  be  of  immediate  use  to  the 
schools.  The  feeling  of  one  of  the  best  of  them  was  doubt- 
less typical.  When  offered  a  fine  school  hi  Antwerp,  Rudolf 
Agricola  replied  to  his  friend  Barbirianus  who  conveyed  the 
senate's  proposal : 

This  school  you  offer  is  a  bad  business,  both  perplexing  and  dis- 
tressing; the  very  sight  of  a  school  as  one  approaches  is  depressing 
and  cruel,  for  what  with  its  floggings,  its  tears,  and  the  continual  wail- 
ings  that  proceed  from  it,  it  invariably  suggests  a  prison.  What  a- 
misnomer  is  "  school "  !  The  name  seems  to  have  been  given  because 
of  its  utter  contrast.  For  the  Greeks  mean  by  "  schola,"  leisure,  and 
the  Latins,  "  sport "  in  an  intellectual  sense  —  but  never  was  any- 
where less  of  "  leisure  "  or  any  greater  contrast  to  "  sport ".  The 
Greek  comic  poet  Aristophanes  hit  it  much  more  nearly  when  he 
called  it  phrontisterion,  that  is  to  say,  a  "  house  of  cares  ".  School  for 
me  ?  Hardly  ! l 

1  Agric.  Opera  ed.  Alardus  Koln,  1539,  ii,  pp.  208,  215.  Cf.  Kaemmel,  op.  tit., 
p.  411. 


1 6  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Only  after  the  delicate  and  elusive  product  of  Italian  Hu- 
manism had  been  toughened  by  the  Reformation  into  stout 
German  school-stuff,  did  the  new  culture  successfully  make 
its  way  in  the  hands  of  a  set  of  brilliant  organizers  and 
schoolmen,  Trotzendorf  hi  Goldberg,  Neander  in  Ilfeld, 
Sturm  in  Strassburg,  Wolf  in  Augsburg,  and  many  others. 

The  man  who  did  most  to  give  a  humanistic  form  to  the 
education  that  his  suspicious  and  reactionary  friend  Luther 
was  urging  upon  the  German  cities,  was  Melanchthon.  It 
is  especially  instructive  to  note  with  what  clearness  this 
keen-minded  pioneer  grasped  the  fundamentally  progres- 
sive ideas  of  the  new  pedagogy  —  ideas  of  which  only  the 
few  finest  spirits,  a  Vittorino  or  an  Erasmus,  felt  the 
significance,  and  which  the  mechanical,  immature  psychology 
of  the  tune  was  unable  to  seize  upon  and  develop.  He  says 
hi  his  preface  to  Hesiod's  "  Works  and  Days  ": 

I  have  always  endeavored  to  place  before  you  such  authors  as 
increase  one's  knowledge  of  things  at  the  same  time  that  they  contri- 
bute largely  to  enrich  expression.  For  these  two  elements  go  together, 
and,  as  Horace  says,  have  entered  into  a  sworn  friendship,  so  that  the 
one  stands  and  is  supported  by  the  help  of  the  other;  for  no  one  can 
express  himself  effectively  if  he  has  not  equipped  his  thought  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  best  things,  and  knowledge  halts  without  the 
light  of  appropriate  expression.1 

This  recognition  of  the  value  of  an  education  received 
through  contact  with  the  material  world  became  official  in 
Prussia  in  190x3.  To  just  what  length  Melanchthon  him- 
self would  have  carried  it  is  uncertain,  but  the  formula  is 
correct. 

A  great  world  of  new  ideals  had  been  discovered  in  the 
languages  and  literatures  of  ancient  peoples,  and  these, 
seized  upon  and  worked  over,  however  narrowly,  by  the 
novel  personal  and  religious  motives  bred  in  the  Reforma- 
tion, produced  a  new  conception  of  education  and  a  new  pres- 

1  Corpus  Reformatorum,  xi,  p.  112. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  IJ 

sure  toward  it.  Luther's  incessant  appeal  for  more  exten- 
sive popular  instruction,  as  well  as  for  the  formal  education 
of  a  new  and  efficient  class  of  state  officials,  is  an  expression 
of  this  new  attitude.  The  gradual  extension  of  the  course  of 
study  in  schools  to  include  subjects  formerly  given  only  in  the 
university  —  dialectics,  physics,  geography,  mathematics,  - 
thus  opening  the  way  for  the  modern  school  organization,  is 
further  evidence.  In  some  of  the  schools,  a  few  courses  of 
university  grade  were  added  for  the  benefit  of  the  lower 
clergy,  and  in  process  of  tune  a  higher  institute  or  even  a 
university  might  appear.  Thus  the  time  was  full  of  educa- 
tional incentive  and  inspiration  which  hi  some  respects  con- 
siderably affected  the  teacher's  task  and  position.  His 
vocation  became  somewhat  less  a  mechanical  craft,  some- 
what more  an  intellectual  profession. 

With  Humanism  came  inspection,  perhaps  the  result  of 
reasonable  solicitude  as  to  how  the  erratic  "  poet-school- 
masters "  would  get  on.  With  the  Reformation,  concern  for 
"  sound  doctrine  "  hi  the  troublous  times  intensified  the 
demand  for  supervision,  and  Schulordnungen,  the  country 
over,  regulated  both  teacher  and  instruction  hi  minute 
detail.  Inspectors,  chiefly  priests,  were  appointed,  and  re- 
quired to  make  regular  visits.  So  in  the  Wiirttemberg 
Schulordnung  of  1559,  it  is  ordered  that  the  priest  shall, 

either  alone,  or,  if  necessary,  with  the  bailiff  and  regular  inspectors, 
visit  the  school  at  least  once  a  month,  and  see  how,  and  to  what 
extent,  these  school-regulations  of  ours  are  carried  out. l 

They  were  required  also  to  hold  an  examination  and  super- 
vise promotions.  In  the  Kursachsische  Schulordnung  of 

1580,  the  examination  prescriptions  are  carried  to  great 

length.2  It  is  apparent  that  the  schoolmaster  is  no  longer 
master  within  his  own  domain,  but  has  become  a  public 
servant  in  a  minutely  regulated  public  institution. 

1  Vormbaum,  Evangdische  Schidordnungen,  i,  p.  97.  *  Ibid.,  p.  264. 


1 8  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Educationally  his  task  is  more  complicated  than  in  the 
simple  times  of  the  previous  century.  A  new  pedagogical 
principle  has  appeared  which  demands  the  co-operation  of 
the  pupil.  Thus,  whereas  before  the  boy  had  learned  his 
Doctrinale  passively  so  as  to  be  able  to  take  apart  or  recon- 
struct, piece  by  piece,  the  logical  frame-work  into  which 
formal  grammar  had  been  fashioned,  his  business  was  now 
to  produce  real  speeches  on  familiar  topics;  to  imitate,  that  is, 
in  new  combinations  of  his  own,  the  form  and  style  of  the 
classical  writer  put  into  his  hand.  This  was  undoubtedly  a 
gain.  Here  was  at  least  the  possibility  of  introducing  an 
aesthetic  aim,  and  the  process  was  attended  by  all  the  enrich- 
ment of  actual  knowledge  which  might  come  with  the  wealth 
of  fresh  information  in  these  classical  sources. 

Such  was  Melanchthon's  ideal,  but  a  method  which  he 
could  vitalize  became  in  the  average  school  a  mere  formula. 
The  language  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  given  place  to  classical 
Latin  and  Greek,  but  catechism,  grammars,  and  rhetorical 
text  books  were  still  committed  bodily  to  memory.  Even 
the  reading  of  authors  came  to  the  same  thing.  The  tea- 
cher's exposition  was  followed  by  its  repetition  by  the  pupil, 
as  nearly  as  possible  word  for  word,  on  the  following  day; 
choice  words  and  phrases  were  carefully  culled  and  memo- 
rized, and  later  used  as  so  many  blocks  in  imitative  rebuild- 
ing. According  to  the  skill  and  fertility  of  the  master, 
interesting  information  could  be  brought  out  by  the  way, 
but  this  never  formed  a  necessary  feature  of  instruction. 
Allowing,  then,  for  the  improvement  of  the  intellectual 
conditions  in  general,  a  schoolmaster  could  be  successful  and 
still  occupy  relatively  the  same  ground  on  which  he  had 
stood  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The  tools  had  changed, 
but  the  new  required  scarcely  more  intelligent  handling 
than  the  old.  A  continuation  and  development  of  the  correct 
principles  of  teaching,  as  advocated  by  Erasmus  for  example, 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  19 

became  therefore  less  and  less  the  motive  of  settled  practice. 
Even  Sturm  could  see  no  objection  to  training  young  stu- 
dents in  Demosthenes  and  St.  Paul  whether  they  understood 
or  not.  And  Hieronymus  Wolf  stated  the  mournful  con- 
viction which,  in  general,  has  sheltered  educational  failure 
up  to  this  day  when  he  concluded: 

Do  what  you  will,  the  roots  of  learning  will  be  bitter,  and  the 
sweetness  of  the  fruit  will  be  appreciated  only  in  the  ripeness  of  time.1 

It  would  be  wrong,  however,  to  conclude  that  even  the 
masters  themselves  did  not  at  times  find  the  process  intol- 
erable. The  sensitive  Melanchthon  wrote  quite  at  length 
"  De  miser  Us  paedagogorum"  drawing  a  distressing  picture 
in  great  detail;  he  declares  convict  labor  to  be  less  wretched 
than  that  of  the  schoolmaster,  and  teaching  to  be  a  better 
symbol  of  fruitlessness  than  the  task  of  Sisyphus;  to  teach  a 
camel  to  dance  or  an  ass  to  play  the  lyre  were  more  profit- 
able, as  boys  prefer  digging  in  the  ditch  to  studying  Latin; 
and  he  closes  too  weary  to  enumerate  the  many  evils  left 
unmentioned.2  And  Wolf,  the  martinet  mentioned  above, 
breaks  out  hi  the  essay  there  referred  to: 

Fortunate  Romans,  who  had  but  one  foreign  language,  Greek,  to 
learn,  and  that  not  by  instruction,  but  by  intercourse  with  the  Greeks 
—  the  easiest  possible  way.  And  still  more  fortunate  Greeks,  who, 
quite  content  with  their  own  tongue,  could,  after  a  fair  amount  of 
practice  in  speaking  and  writing  it,  give  themselves  wholly  to  the 
study  of  the  liberal  arts  and  philosophy.  But  we  have  good  reason 
to  curse  our  luck,  since  a  large  number  of  our  allotted  years  slip  by 
while  we  are  studying  foreign  languages,  and  all  these  obstacles  and 
delays  keep  us  from  the  Temple  of  Wisdom  itself  —  for  as  a  matter 
of  fact  Latin  and  Greek  are  not  in  themselves  culture,  but  the  gate- 
way to  it.* 

As  a  relief  from  the  relentless  grinding  at  grammar,  as  well 
as  to  enliven  the  pupils'  sense  of  classical  form  and  style, 

1  Vormbaum,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  465.    Augsbwger  Schulord.,  1558,  Anhang. 

*  Corpus  Reformalorum,  xi,  pp.  121  ff.  *  Vormbaum,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  457. 


2O  THE  OBERLEHRER 

dramatic  productions  and  declamations  from  old  authors 
were  introduced,  and  formed  a  permanent  feature  of  school 
life  until  the  eighteenth  century.  In  them  the  master  found 
his  one  productive  sphere,  and  worked  over  a  large  part  of 
classical  and  Biblical  literature  for  material  with  which  to 
enforce  the  lessons  of  Christian  virtue  and  wisdom.  The 
pupils  were  the  performers,  and  pupils  and  master  shared  in 
the  financial  profits  which  came  from  an  appreciative  public. 
The  abolition  of  the  "begging  scholars",  after  1520, 
brought  some  improvement  to  the  discipline  of  the  school, 
but  the  rod  seems  still  to  have  been  unmercifully  applied. 
Trotzendorf  made  even  bearded  seniors  tremble  before  his 
whip.  Brunswick  schools  were  permitted  to  use  corporal 
punishment  only  on  pupils  below  the  age  of  seventeen; 
penalties  were  then  commuted  to  money.  The  Schulord- 
nung  for  Kursachsen,  1580,  gives  the  following  grades  of 
punishment : 

(i)  The  culprits  shall  be  solemnly  examined  and  warned  of  punish- 
ment; (2)  they  shall  eat  on  the  ground;  (3)  their  usual  food  and 
drink  shall  be  forbidden;  (4)  they  shall  be  whipped;  (5)  they  shall 
be  placed  in  the  dungeon;  and  finally,  (6)  they  shall  be  expelled  from 
school.1 

And  the  city  of  Brunswick  puts  in  the  regulations  for  its 
Latin  school  of  1535,  the  direction  that  each  master  shall 
"  with  rod  in  hand,"  take  his  place  among  the  choir  boys  at 
church  and  maintain  good  order. 

The  religious  duties  of  the  rector  and  his  assistants  were 
increased,  if  anything,  by  the  influences  of  the  Reformation. 
With  a  readiness  springing,  perhaps,  from  the  traditional 
hostility  between  the  ill-yoked  authorities  of  church  and 
town  the  master  of  the  town  school  was  frequently  the  first  to 
abandon  the  old  doctrine  and  to  help  establish  the  new. 
The  persistence,  too,  with  which  the  new  leaders  preached 

1  Op.  tit.,  i,  p.  292. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  21 

the  need  of  schools  and  the  value  of  the  schoolmaster's  work 
helped  to  win  the  latter  to  the  new  movement.  Luther 
labored  continually  for  a  truer  appreciation  of  the  teaching 
class : 

It  requires  a  peculiarly  gifted  individual  to  teach  and  train  chil- 
dren properly;  a  diligent  and  conscientious  schoolmaster  who  educates 
and  instructs  boys  faithfully  can  never  be  sufficiently  rewarded  or 
paid  in  money.1 

To  maintain  its  doctrinal  issue,  therefore,  and  to  protect  its 
future,  the  church  now  became  more  vigorous  than  ever  in  its 
guardianship  of  the  school.  The  priests  were  quite  generally 
given  the  power  of  inspection,  of  direction,  and  even  of  con- 
firmation in  the  appointment  of  teachers.  The  latter 
continued  as  before  to  pass  from  the  school  into  the  service 
of  the  church,  and  frequently  began  their  clerical  duties 
before  they  had  abandoned  their  teaching.  Under  these 
circumstances,  it  will  be  readily  understood  that  the  employ- 
ment of  the  pupils  in  the  service  of  the  church  not  only  con- 
tinued but  increased.  The  daily  sermon  in  the  church  was 
part  of  the  instruction  in  the  school.  Emphasis  on  the 
church  music  contributed  by  the  school  boys  was  redoubled. 
Even  the  single  lessons  were  opened  with  song  and  prayer. 
"  The  school  was  the  church  of  the  young,  as  the  church  was 
the  school  of  the  old." 

The  new  dispensation  looked  closely  to  its  teachers. 
Bugenhagen's  series  of  Schulordnungen  was  the  first  to  specify 
a  schoolmaster's  qualifications,  and  shortly  thereafter  each 
candidate  for  a  rector's  or  sub-rector's  position  was  expected 
to  supply  credentials  and  undergo  an  examination  in  true 
modern  fashion.  After  depositing 

true  and  legal  testimonials  and  proofs  of  his  birth,  training,  character, 
and  manner  of  life,  he  shall  conduct  a  lesson  or  two,  as  directed,  in 
the  leading  Latin  school  of  the  consistory.  When  he  has  proven  him- 

1  Luther,  Sermon,  Doss  man  die  Kinder  zur  Schule  halten  soil. 


22  THE  OBERLEHRER 

self  capable,  especially  hi  grammar,  he  shall  thereupon  be  examined 
with  particular  thoroughness  by  the  consistory  in  regular  order,  on 
Dr.  Luther's  catechism  as  contained  in  the  church  regulations,  to  test 
his  religion  and  Christian  faith;  especially  on  the  main  paragraphs 
and  the  disputed  articles,  to  see  whether,  hi  one  or  more,  he  be  not 
perchance  entangled  in  false  doctrine  and  opinion.1 

This  ordeal  over,  he  was  sent  to  the  local  school  authority, 
and  after  reading  the  Schulordnung,  was  duly  appointed. 
This  is  in  Kursachsen  in  1580,  but  similar  provisions  obtained 
in  other  states.  The  emphasis  here  reflects  the  time: 
sound  doctrine  at  any  cost;  as  for  intellectual  ability,  a 
magister  artium  is  expected.  The  rector's  minor  assistants, 
the  "  paedagogi  ",  he  himself  appoints  as  he  chooses. 

Tenure  of  position  is  still  relatively  short,  for  the  master's 
attention  is  naturally  on  his  future  interests  which  are 
wholly  with  the  church,  beyond  its  tedious  vestibule  —  the 
school.  Fischer  gives  evidence  to  show  a  general  tendency 
to  lengthen  the  term  of  appointment.  Thus  in  Frankfort- 
on-the-Main  a  schoolmaster  was  appointed  in  1523  for  three 
years,  in  Wesel,  1521,  for  eight,  and  in  Zwickau  in  the  same 
year  even  for  twelve,  but  the  figures  in  other  places  show 
that  these  latter  were  very  unusual  terms  of  tenure,  and  that 
a  rapid  change  still  prevailed.2  For  two  of  the  leading 
schools  of  the  time,  Grauen  Kloster  at  Berlin  and  the  Gym- 
nasium at  Flensburg,  Paulsen  gives  some  significant  figures.3 
The  first  had  twenty  directors  in  less  than  one  hundred 
years,  1574-1668.  Of  these  eleven  became  priests,  four 
took  another  school,  one  went  to  the  university  and  three 
died  in  office.  In  the  two  centuries  following,  1668-1867, 
there  were  altogether  but  twelve  changes,  giving  an  average 
of  sixteen  and  one-half  years  to  each,  as  compared  with  less 
than  five  years  in  the  preceding  period.  All  twelve  ended 
their  careers  in  office.  At  Flensburg,  between  1 566  and  1 795, 

1  Vormbaum,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  251.  2  Fischer,  op.  cit ,  i,  p.  48. 

1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  327. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  2$ 

there  were  nineteen  rectors,  the  first  twelve  of  whom  had  an 
average  tenure  of  five  years,  and  the  last  seven  (1627-1795) 
of  twenty-four  years.  Of  the  first  twelve,  six  surely,  and 
probably  more,  became  priests,  some  even  in  villages;  of  the 
last  seven  only  one  did  so,  and  the  last  rector  had  left  a 
professorship  hi  the  University  of  Copenhagen  to  take  the 
position.  The  period,  therefore,  at  which  a  good  school 
rectorate  became  an  independent  profession  is  clear;  it  was 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  longer  before  this  could  be  said 
of  the  work  of  the  rector's  assistants. 

In  respect  to  income  the  condition  of  the  schoolmaster 
in  the  late  fifteenth  century  is  somewhat  unproved  in  com- 
parison with  the  century  previous.  The  vexing  minor  fees 
were  abolished,  as  in  the  case  of  Nuremberg  already  cited. 
But  the  schoolmaster  still  collects  tuition,  takes  fees  accord- 
ing to  the  rank  of  the  deceased  for  attendance  of  his  boys 
at  funerals,  accepts  gifts  and  donations  made  on  festival 
occasions,  and  even  shares  the  profits  of  the  children  from 
their  street-singing.  If  enterprising  he  may  derive  some- 
thing from  his  theatrical  efforts  or  private  tutoring.  In  the 
master's  relations  with  the  town  authorities,  the  new  Schul- 
ordnungen  seem  to  have  tried  to  effect  a  change.  Thus 
Bugenhagen's  Schulordnung  for  Braunschweig,  1528,  con- 
tains a  long  section  fixing  salaries  and  obligations;  it  binds 
the  Stadtrat  not  to  desert  the  schoolmaster  in  illness, 
provides  that  one  of  his  assistants  shall  collect  the  tuition 
fees,  and  if  a  master  wishes  to  marry,  it  pledges  the  town  to 
provide  a  house.1 

The  social  position  of  the  sixteenth  century  schoolmaster 
was  a  sorry  one  from  his  own  point  of  view  as  well  as  in  the 
eyes  of  others.  It  was  deplored  in  one  continuous  wail  of 
unappreciated  worth  which  resounded  through  the  next  two 
hundred  years.  This  is  not  surprising.  Both  Humanism 

1  Vormbaum,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  12. 


24  THE  OBERLEHRER 

and  Reformation  had  laid  unmeasured  emphasis  on  the 
culture  for  which  the  schoolmaster  stood.  Humanism, 
furthermore,  had  given  him  a  voice  and  a  passion  for  elo- 
quence. The  trouble  was  that  the  thing  for  which  he  stood 
bore  no  direct  relation  to  the  thing  he  did,  nor  to  the  way 
in  which  he  did  it.  The  Humanist  schoolmaster,  imbued 
with  the  new  ideals  of  his  new  world,  —  whether  these  were 
sincere,  as  at  first,  or  artificial,  as  they  soon  became,  —  was 
the  sure  prey  to  an  inward  struggle  between  work  and 
worth.  It  was  the  same  struggle  that  has  constituted  the 
teacher's  tragedy  from  that  tune  to  this,  and  is  only  now 
beginning  to  yield  to  the  general  insight  that  worth  must 
somehow  be  expressed  in  terms  of  work  to  command  its 
proper  valuation.  Society  in  the  long  run  appraises  a  ser- 
vice rendered  at  its  actual  significance,  and  does  not  willingly 
make  up  irrelevant  arrears,  however  much  it  may  pity  or 
admire  the  creditor.  So  here,  men  who  felt  themselves  to  be 
the  successors  of  Greek  and  Roman  poets,  were  performing 
with  natural  disdain  what  a  very  much  humbler  individual 
could  have  done  quite  as  well.  Melanchthon's  friend,  Eobanus 
Hessus,  might  perhaps  better  have  ascribed  his  feelings  to 
causes  more  within  his  control  than  to  the  humbleness  of  his 
position  as  rector  at  Erfurt,  but  his  words  are  expressive: 

And  what  is  the  reward  of  all  our  pains  ?  Fasting,  affliction,  im- 
poverishment, sickness,  and  never-ceasing  grief.  Every  other  pur- 
suit sustains  its  man;  but  the  school  teacher  is  weighed  down  with 
shocking  poverty,  and  the  wanton  pride  of  others  prostrates  him 
completely.  Every  common  clerk,  pettifogger,  and  beggar-monk 
has  or  claims  precedence.  So  in  the  bloom  of  our  years  whitened  age 
overtakes  us.  Oh,  better  death  than  this  profession ! 1 

One  is  more  impressed  with  Melanchthon's  own  complaint: 

We  are  objects  of  the  most  arrogant  contempt,  not  only  from  the 
ignorant,  the  commercial  class,  who  rail  at  all  education,  but  also 
from  those  demi-gods  that  sit  on  high  at  the  courts.2 

1  Schmidt,  Gesch,  d.  Padagogik,  ii,  p.  481.      2  Corpus  Reformatorum,  xi,  p.  299. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  2$ 

From  a  later  period,  1577,  Janssen  quotes  the  words  of  a 
preacher  in  Jena : 

Who  can  deny  the  truth  of  the  taunt  flung  by  the  papists,  that 
among  the  protestants  all  charity  has  as  good  as  disappeared,  and 
that  preachers,  teachers,  and  schoolmasters  are  so  lightly  esteemed 
that  they  can  find  no  support  for  wife  and  child,  and  even  by  begging 
are  often  unable  to  keep  soul  and  body  together.1 

This  whole  chapter  of  Janssen  is  full  of  instances  showing  the 
savagery  of  the  schools,  and  the  want  and  destitution  of  the 
masters.  Possibly  his  Catholic  point  of  view  leads  him  to 
undervalue  material  that  gives  Fischer's  account  a  more 
cheerful  tone. 

Unforeseen  by  Luther,  an  important  factor  operated 
from  the  tune  of  the  Reformation  on,  to  reduce  the  social 
prestige  of  the  schoolmaster  and  of  the  clergy  as  well.  When 
the  break  in  the  church  came,  the  old  clerical  nobility, 
recruited  through  the  cloister  schools  from  the  first  blood  of 
the  land,  withdrew.  The  princes  of  the  church  went  over  to 
the  state  on  which  the  church  was  now  dependent,  and  the 
lower  clergy  alone  remained,  drawn  largely  from  the  lower 
classes  and  accustomed  to  small  esteem.  In  the  school  this 
occasioned  a  loss  not  fully  retrieved  until  the  nineteenth 
century.  From  now  on,  the  governing  classes  received  their 
education  either  through  specially  favored  institutions, 
through  the  later  Ritteracademieen,  or  through  private  in- 
structors. In  view  of  the  generally  accepted  German 
principle:  "As  the  pupil,  so  the  master,"  in  respect  to 
gentility,  the  effect  of  this  change  on  the  schoolmaster's 
social  position  was  considerable.  This  loss  of  prestige  was 
partly  atoned  for  by  the  establishment  of  several  great  state 
schools  out  of  confiscated  church  property.  Here,  if  any- 
where, the  nobility  still  appeared,  and  here  are  to  be  found 
also  the  beginnings  of  that  state  over-sight  and  control  which 

1  Janssen,  Gesch.  d.  d.  Volkes,  vii,  p.  74. 


26  THE  OBERLEHRER 

developed  later  such  conditions  as  were  needed  for  a  homo- 
geneous Oberlehrerstand.  These  schools  were  able  to  select 
the  best  masters,  and  their  operation  could  be  maintained  at 
a  high  standard.  A  position  here  was  among  the  few  to  give 
that  social  standing  which  a  capable  man,  inclined  to  the 
profession  from  inward  motives,  would  find  agreeable  for 
life. 

Finally  a  passage  or  two  may  be  cited  from  Ebner,  who, 
in  his  little  book  Magister,  Oberlehrer,  Professoren,  has  sought 
to  trace  the  figure  of  the  schoolmaster  through  German 
literature.  He  says  of  this  and  the  period  immediately 
following: 

It  is  the  same  figure  recurring  again  and  again  —  the  schoolmaster 
continually  bursting  into  lamentations,  chiefly  in  Latin.  Between 
the  stupidity  of  the  parents  and  the  rebelliousness  of  the  pupils  he 
wages  an  exhausting  warfare;  the  demons  of  the  school-room  beset 
him  sorely,  and  his  mournful  existence  is  lightened  only  on  the  rare 
occasion  when  some  parent  invites  him  out  to  dine.1 

Typical,  too,  is  the  following  extract  from  a  Komb'die  vom 
Schulwesen  by  Georg  Mauritius,  rector  in  Nuremberg, 
1606;  The  Magister  Christianus  speaks: 

Am  I  not  a  wretched  man  ? 
Endure  such  weary  toil,  none  can; 
Neither  day  nor  night  brings  rest, 
And  mighty  meagre  thanks  at  best. 
A  match  for  me  ne'er  lived,  I  know; 
Nor  tossed  in  such  a  sea  of  woe; 
Was  ne'er  by  toil  so  overborne, 
Nor  thus  of  all  life's  best  powers  shorn. 

3.    The  Pedant-Schoolmaster,  1600-1750 

The  most  characteristic  features  of  school-teaching  before 
1600  have  been  outlined.  They  continue  for  a  hundred  and 
fifty  years  almost  without  change,  touched  in  the  larger 

1  Ebner,  Magister,  Oberlehrer,  Professoren,  p.  67. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  27 

schools  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  the  beginnings  of  better 
things,  and  giving  place  generally  in  the  nineteenth  to  a  new 
spirit  and  new  conditions.  The  fervor  of  humanistic  ideals 
was  rapidly  exhausted  in  a  dogmatic  age  concerned  with 
nerving  all  parties  to  religious  wars;  but  the  withered  prac- 
tices remained.  Against  these  the  progressive  spirits  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  Ratichius,  Comenius,  Leibnitz,  and 
others  carried  on  a  derisive  and  relentless,  but  largely  fruitless 
struggle.  Stirred  by  influences  from  without,  where  forces 
were  in  motion  that  left  the  German  scholar-world  almost 
untouched,  the  governing  classes  broke  entirely  with  the 
old  system,  and  devised  one  new  and  up-to-date  in  the 
brilliant  but  superficial  Ritterakademieen  or  schools  for  noble- 
men. Nevertheless  the  old  persisted.  Greek,  to  be  sure,  had 
everywhere  given  way,  and  its  study  was  reduced  chiefly  to 
a  formal  handling  of  the  New  Testament  for  the  sake  of  the 
future  students  of  theology.  Between  1600  and  1775,  there 
appeared  scarcely  a  single  new  edition  of  a  Greek  classic 
author,  though  an  exceedingly  active  period  of  publication 
had  preceded.1  Latin,  on  the  contrary,  held  its  ground  in 
aim,  method,  and  amount;  its  gradual  devitalization  ap- 
peared in  the  abandonment  of  the  classical  writers,  and  a 
more  or  less  complete  return  to  the  philosophical  and  theo- 
logical Latin  which  in  the  seventeenth  century  had  com- 
pletely remastered  the  universities. 

Toward  the  end  of  the  century,  the  reform  ideas  of  Rati- 
chius, that  had  received  tentative  expression  in  the  short- 
lived institutions  of  the  Thuringian  duke  of  Gotha  as  early 
as  1640,  found  a  permanent  and  popular  embodiment  at 
Halle,  in  the  Paedagogium  of  A.  H.  Franke,  a  former  pupil  at 
Gotha.  This  school,  widely  influential  through  its  pupils, 
incorporated  in  its  curriculum  French,  German,  geometry, 
trigonometry,  algebra,  history,  and  geography,  beside  Latin 

1  Paulsen,  op,  tit.,  i,  p.  475. 


28  THE  OBERLEHRER 

and  Greek.1  This  sounds  revolutionary  but  the  change  is 
seen  to  be  more  apparent  than  real  when  it  is  observed  that 
to  Latin  alone  was  assigned  three  and  a  half  hours  daily 
except  on  the  review  days,  Wednesday  and  Saturday. 
German,  and  all  the  non-linguistic  work,  was  given  in  a 
single  afternoon  period ! 2  So  firm  was  the  grip  of  formalism 
even  in  that  model  centre  of  the  new  tendencies.  The  new 
subjects  rapidly  found  their  way  into  the  larger  and  better 
schools,  but  as  private,  extra,  and  voluntary  subjects  for 
which  a  special  fee  was  charged.  Not  until  J.  M.  Gesner's 
genius  later  transformed  the  old  Latin  instruction,  and  gave 
it  rational  relations  to  life  and  reality  did  the  new  ideas  com- 
pletely break  through  or  receive  genuine  recognition  in  the 
plan  of  studies. 

As  the  old  regime  ran  its  course,  the  schoolmaster  appeared 
in  an  increasingly  unfavorable  light.  His  training  was 
still  that  of  the  church.  In  the  edict  of  Frederick  William  I, 
1718,  the  examination  requirements  of  the  priest  and  school- 
master are  treated  as  fully  identical,  and  one  is  expected  to 
appreciate  and  supplement  the  work  of  the  other.3  Consider, 
furthermore,  that,  by  the  eighteenth  century,  classical 
studies  had  practically  disappeared  from  the  universities, 
here  and  there  absolutely.  In  respect  to  real  preparation 
for  his  work,  therefore,  the  magister  artium  was  as  badly  off 
as  his  predecessor  of  the  Middle  Ages.  What  he  had 
received  in  the  school  before  going  to  the  university  became 
his  complete  professional  stock-in-trade  when  he  returned  as 
rector  of  the  institution;  should  he  pass  on  into  the  priest- 
hood as  he  expected,  another,  as  badly  off  as  he,  took  his 
place;  should  fate  leave  him  with  the  class  of  unsuccessful 
remnants  to  spend  his  life  in  teaching,  the  effect  upon  the 
school  may  be  imagined.  One  is  not  surprised,  therefore, 

1  Vormbaum,  op.  tit.,  iii,  pp.  214  ff. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  240. 

J  Heubaum,  Gesch.  d.  d.  Bildungswesens,  i,  p.  161. 


THE  SCHOOLMASTER  29 

to  find  that  even  at  the  famous  Halle  Paedagogium,  impres- 
sions were  current  like  the  following  from  the  autobiography 
of  one  who  was  there  from  1728  to  1732: 

In  no  schools  is  one  likely  to  find  the  teachers  properly  selected; 
exceedingly  few  are  really  fit  for  their  profession,  and  at  Halle  the 
arrangements  are  such  that  almost  every  hour  and  every  half-year 
one  gets  not  only  different  but  new  teachers.  At  Halle,  therefore, 
I  had  the  misfortune  to  be,  for  the  most  part,  under  masters  who 
were  no  students  of  literature,  who  were  in  fact  not  teachers  at  all. 
They  could  not  get  at  the  kernel  of  Cicero  for  me,  and  as  a  result, 
I  conceived  a  loathing  for  the  old  Latin  authors  whom  I  could  not 
understand.  That  was  bad  luck  for  me.1 

A  few  passages  may  serve,  in  closing,  to  illustrate  the  con- 
sensus of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  work  and  position  of  the 
schoolmaster  during  or  at  the  end  of  the  period  under  dis- 
cussion. Setting  forth  the  causes  for  poor  schools,  the 
Schulordnung  of  Braunschweig- Wolf enbiittel,  1651,  proceeds: 

The  prime  cause  is  undeniably  the  fact  that  the  instructors  have 
not  enjoyed  sufficient  pay  to  cover  their  necessities  of  food  and  drink, 
to  say  nothing  of  clothing  and  other  indispensable  requirements. 

From  this  and  other  causes  mentioned  it  ensues 

that  he  who  undertakes  an  appointment  to  instruct  youth  in  school 
must  count  on  no  other  reward  for  his  severe  pains  and  labor,  than 
a  rigorous  life,  passed  in  hunger,  thirst,  exposure,  and  lack  of  every 
necessity;  and,  in  addition,  he  must  expect  to  be  scorned  by  everyone 
and  trodden  under  foot.2 

From  the  verdict  of  German  literature  Ebner  reports: 

The  scholar-humanist  of  the  early  sixteenth  century  becomes  little 
by  little  the  Latin-spouting  pedant,  the  "  Schulfitchs,"  as  the  seven- 
teenth century  calls  him,  over  whom  it  is  the  fashion  to  joke.  The 
professional  prestige,  which  we  can  still  clearly  discern  in  the  literary 
remains  of  the  Reformation  period  —  think  of  Macropedius  —  crum- 
bles away  bit  by  bit.  The  teacher  grows  powerless  with  the  parents, 
dependent  upon  them  as  he  is  for  his  pittance  for  tuition.  That  this 
dependence  reacts  injuriously  upon  his  character  is  obvious.  Thus 

1  Reiske's  Selbstbiographie.     Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  tit.,  i,  p.  595. 
J  Vormbaum,  op.  tit.,  ii,  pp.  410  ff. 


30  THE  OBERLEHRER 

with  the  advancing  seventeenth  century,  the  figure  of  the  teacher 
becomes  more  and  more  deplorable;  indeed,  actually  vulgar.1 

And  their  condition  in  the  eighteenth  century  he  finds 

more  dismal  and  pitiful,  if  possible,  than  we  discovered  it  to  be  in 
the  seventeenth.2 

Finally  to  sum  up  with  Paulsen's  words: 

When,  in  the  schools,  both  teachers  and  pupils  are  forced  hi  daily 
toil  to  pursue  occupations  to  which  beyond  school  walls  no  significance 
is  longer  attached,  the  result  cannot  be  other  than  discontent. 

It  is  my  belief  that  at  no  time  has  the  school  work  in  secondary 
schools  been  performed  with  less  pleasure  and  spontaneity  than  at 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.3 

What  busied  them  counted  no  longer  in  the  world  without;  what 
counted  without,  that  was  hardly  as  yet  their  business.4 

1  Ebner,  Magister,  Oberlehrer,  Professoren,  p.  68. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  99. 

*  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  i,  p.  592. 
4  Ibid.,  i,  p.  607. 


CHAPTER  II 

SECOND  PERIOD,  1750-1871 

THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER 

i.    The  Greek  Revival 

THE  spirit  and  ideals  of  higher  instruction  may  or  may  not 
reflect  directly  the  best  insight  of  the  time.  Periods  of  such 
coincidence  alternate  with  long  intervals  of  transition  and 
maladjustment.  The  years  between  1650  and  1800  seem 
to  constitute  such  an  interval,  after  which  the  school  in 
Germany  represents  the  dominant  spiritual  forces  hi  society 
more  perfectly  than  at  any  preceding  time.  To  appreciate 
the  change  it  is  indispensable  to  observe  these  guiding 
intellectual  and  spiritual  forces  more  closely. 

In  the  face  of  what  gave  every  promise  of  being  certain 
oblivion,  Greek  and  Roman  studies  were  rescued  during  the 
eighteenth  century  by  a  movement  that  carried  them  to 
the  zenith  of  their  influence  in  western  Europe.  This  move- 
ment was  essentially  of  a  twofold  character.  In  its  method 
and  mental  attitude  it  represented  fully  the  purpose  and 
scope  of  that  idea  which  had  been  approached,  indeed,  in  the 
earlier  Humanism,  but  which  had  first  found  emphatic 
apostles  in  Ratichius  and  Comenius;  namely,  content  as  well 
as  form,  and  content  first.  In  its  spirit  and  direction,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  assumed  the  proportions  of  a  veritable  religion, 
nourished  in  the  hitherto  almost  unknown  Greek  civilization. 
It  is  difficult,  in  a  brief  statement,  to  set  such  a  movement 
in  the  frame  of  its  necessary  surroundings,  but  it  cannot  be 
considered  out  of  connection  with  the  profound  mental 
release  which  had  occurred  in  theology,  law,  medicine,  and 

31 


32  THE  OBERLEHRER 

philosophy.  It  gathered  up  into  itself  all  those  instincts  for 
scientific  and  aesthetic  satisfaction  which  the  discovery  of 
the  world  of  things  had  brought.  It  offered  at  the  same  time 
a  peculiarly  welcome  refuge  in  its  glowing  ideals  for  those 
more  ardent  and  creative  spirits  who  could  feel  only  aversion 
for  the  coldness  of  Rationalism  or  the  rigors  of  Pietism. 

The  first  of  these  characteristics  will  appear  below  when 
the  specific  changes  in  the  methods  of  instruction  are  pointed 
out.  The  second  is  of  perhaps  greater  fundamental  import- 
ance because  it  seems  to  contain  the  secret  of  that  over- 
powering self-confidence  and  enthusiasm  with  which  the 
New  Humanism  set  to  work,  and  which  completely 'trans- 
formed the  life  and  mission  of  the  German  schoolmaster. 
An  ideal  that  could  captivate  the  minds  of  a  group  of  men 
like  Johann  Winckelmann,  Lessing,  Herder,  Humboldt, 
Goethe,  and  Schiller,  and  lead  to  a  series  of  artistic  perform- 
ances that  with  scarcely  diminished  power  still  signalize  a 
great  epoch,  could  hardly  fail  to  arouse  the  fervor  of  those 
men  who  found  the  means  to  reach  it  directly  in  their  path. 
To  the  restless  Winckelmann  "  the  noble  simplicity  and  calm 
greatness "  of  Greek  beauty  had  become  a  controlling 
passion.  Schiller,  commiserating  Goethe  for  the  roundabout 
path  his  northern  spirit  must  follow  in  reaching  its  ideal, 
laments : 

Had  you  been  born  a  Greek,  or  even  an  Italian,  and  been  sur- 
rounded from  the  cradle  up  with  the  flower  of  Nature's  forms  and  an 
Art  dedicated  to  the  Ideal,  your  path  thither  had  been  infinitely 
shortened,  possibly  wholly  done  away.  For  so  the  first  vision  of 
things  would  have  revealed  to  you  their  necessary  form,  and  the 
mighty  style  would  have  risen  in  .you  with  your  earliest  experiences.1 

And  Herder  in  one  of  his  Brief e  zur  Beforderung  der  Hu- 
manitat  (No.  66)  utters  the  dominating  conception  of  the 
whole  band : 

1  Vollmer,  Briefwechsel  zw.  Schiller  u.  Goethe,  i,  p.  5.  Brief  wm  23  Aug., 
1794. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  33 

With  solemn  reverence  we  ascend  to  Olympus,  and  there  behold 
the  forms  of  gods  in  the  likeness  of  men.  The  Greeks  deified  Hu- 
manity. Other  nations  debased  the  thought  of  God  and  made  it 
monstrous;  but  this  one  elevated  the  divine  in  man  to  deity. 

Paulsen's  summary  of  the  results  of  this  train  of  thought 
ought  also  to  be  given: 

In  this  world  of  thought  and  feeling  the  German  people  lived  and 
labored  during  the  next  two  generations  —  that  portion  of  the  German 
people,  at  least,  which  attended  the  secondary  schools  and  univer- 
sities. Among  the  Greeks  the  idea  of  Man  became  flesh;  to  lift  our- 
selves to  the  true,  the  ideal  manhood  through  reflection  upon  that 
idea  —  that  is  henceforth  the  task.  It  becomes  the  duty  of  the 
secondary  school  to  serve  as  means  to  this  end.  The  school  is,  as  it 
were,  the  temple  of  Hellenism  upon  earth,  whither  the  youth  of  all 
peoples  shall  be  led  to  acquire  for  themselves  the  idea  of  Humanity. 
In  place  of  the  old  "  sapiens  atque  eloquens  pietas  "  stands  now  "  sa- 
piens atque  eloquens  humanitas."  * 

In  the  same  direction  worked  Rousseau's  influence, 
especially  powerful  in  Prussia,  in  so  far  as  it  overthrew  out- 
worn conventions,  and  sought  to  make  the  spirit  free  to 
develop  from  within.  Spontaneous  activity  and  self-discov- 
ery in  the  fresh,  untrammelled  play  of  a  healthy  human 
nature  is  the  keynote.  Heralding  his  ideas,  the  Philan- 
thropinists  caught  the  ear  of  the  German  public.  The 
attention  they  were  given  and  the  expectations  they  aroused 
are  most  significant  indications  of  the  appearance  of  new 
educational  aspirations. 

The  expression  of  this  movement  in  an  effective  educa- 
tional practice  was  the  work  primarily  of  three  men,  Johann 
Gesner,  Christian  Heyne,  and  Friedrich  Wolf,  who  gave  the 
technique  of  classical  studies  the  form  that  it  has  retained 
to  the  present  time.  The  new  treatment  that  these  men 
inaugurated  and  developed  was  simple  but  radically  different 
from  the  old,  and  as  suggested  above  seems  best  regarded 
as  a  satisfaction  of  the  demand  of  their  time  that  at  last  the 

1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  198. 


34 


THE  OBERLEHRER 


</'    V 


mind  be  given  the  substance  of  thought  in  place  of  its  empty 
shell.  To  read  the  author,  not  the  words,  is  their  object;  to 
receive  his  ideas  with  complete  mental  sympathy  and  aban- 
don; to  live  his  life  and  think  his  thoughts,  and  to  gain,  by  a 
sort  of  inner  communion,  the  standpoint  and  spirit  of  him 
who  had  expressed  great  truths.  To  do  this  the  old  painful 
progress  through  a  writer  for  the  purpose  of  gathering  in 
choice  words  and  neat  turns  of  phrase  must  give  place  to 
rapid,  comprehensive  reading,  to  thorough  analysis  of  the 
historical  setting  and  literary  purpose,  and,  finally,  to  a 
stimulation  of  the  imagination  to  keen  personal  appreciation 
of  the  writer's  spiritual  achievement. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  imitation  in  the  old  sense  dis- 
appears wholly.  The  idea  is  refined  into  an  inward  sub- 
mission to  the  mastery  of  ancient  genius  in  the  hope  of  an 
almost  mystic  enduement  of  power  to  create  in  the  spirit 
of  that  genius.  Thus  the  essence  of  the  discipline  to  be 
sought  appears,  not  in  the  language,  but  in  the  intimate 
personal  touch  with  the  good  and  the  great.  Gesner,  like 
Hieronymus  Wolf  in  the  sixteenth  century,  even  laments 
that  the  language  stands  in  the  way.  With  Heyne  and  Wolf, 
to  be  sure,  the  doctrine  of  formal  training  through  language 
study  was  developed  to  its  fullest  extent,  but  one  has  only 
to  note  the  character  of  the  achievements  of  these  men  to 
perceive  that  their  own  vast  profits  out  of  their  business  with 
the  ancients  had  come  through  quite  different  channels. 
Heyne's  biographer,  Heeren,  comparing  him  with  those  who 
approached  the  study  of  languages  with  purely  linguistic  or 
antiquarian  motives,  proceeds: 

From  the  outset  Heyne  had  conceived  a  totally  different  view  of 
antiquity.  His  entire  concern  with  it  had  proceeded  from  the  poets, 
and  this  point  of  view  was  sufficient  to  indicate  that  his  interest  in 
these  studies  was  directed  not  merely  to  linguistic  scholarship,  but 
far  more  to  the  refinement  of  taste,  the  ennobling  of  feeling,  and  the 
complete  development  of  our  whole  moral  nature.  To  be  sure,  study 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  35 

of  the  language,  of  the  grammar  and  versification,  must  furnish  the 
basis  for  further  study  of  classical  literature;  but  to  make  these  the 
chief  object  and  final  purpose  means  to  thrust  down  classical  literature 
from  the  height  to  which  Heyne  has  lifted  it.1 

And  Herbst  in  the  biography  of  J.  H.  Voss,  shows  how  com- 
pletely Heyne's  concern  with  the  realities  of  the  past  had 
absorbed  him. 

Just  as  in  interpretation  he  laid  emphatic  stress  upon  objective 
reality,  so  both  in  research  and  in  instruction  he  had  initiated  the 
organization  of  the  various  disciplines  dealing  with  antiquity  —  myth- 
ology, archaeology,  and  art.  Those  mighty  influences  such  as  re- 
ligion, the  state,  art,  and  literature,  which  gave  form  and  vitality  to 
the  life  of  ancient  peoples,  could  not  fail  to  make  him  clearly  aware 
of  the  analogous  elements  in  the  life  of  his  own  time,  thoroughly 
aroused  and  productive  as  it  was  in  all  these  directions.  He  is  the 
first  philologist  in  whom  appears  such  interaction  of  antiquity  with 
modern  civilization,  of  life  with  scholarship,  an  interaction  hi  which 
must  be  sought  the  deeper  cause  of  Heyne's  social  significance  and  of 
his  popularity.2 

In  the  case  of  Wolf  such  citations  are  hardly  necessary. 
According  to  his  own  claim  and  the  acknowledgment  of 
posterity  he  fused  the  whole  mass  of  classical  learning  into 
one  organic  whole  and  gave  it  a  name.  The  underlying 
motive  which  impelled  him  therein  was  identical  with  that 
felt  and  professed  by  the  others  of  the  humanist  group, 
namely,  the  knowledge  of  man  as  man  stimulated  in  all  his 
innermost  possibilities  through  contact  with  the  relics  of  that 
nation  in  whose  art  and  life  man  had  found  his  loftiest 
representation.  Wolf  even  conceives  the  matter  as  having 
the  worth  and  all  the  imperative  finality  of  a  religion. 

It  is  evident  that  these  are  intensely  modern  men  aglow 
with  the  best  life  and  aspiration  of  their  tune  and  contrib- 
uting to  it.  Gesner  at  Gottingen  was  founder  of  a  society 

1  Heeren,  C.  G.  Heyne,  pp.  186  ff. 

2  Herbst,  Johann  Heinrich  Voss,  i,  pp.  69  ff. 


36  THE  OBERLEHRER 

for  the  promotion  of  the  German  language  and  literature, 
and  was  an  ardent  worker  in  it.  Heyne,  through  the  power 
of  his  vital  interpretations  of  antiquity,  held  an  audience 
drawn  from  all  faculties  of  the  university.  Wolf,  in  spite 
of  an  arrogant  personality,  wielded  a  power  with  men  like 
Wilhelm  v.  Humboldt  that  clearly  marks  his  great  import- 
ance. That  its  real  source  should  be  ignored,  and  that  the 
secret  of  human  wealth  in  classical  antiquity  should  become 
gradually  attached  to  a  chiefly  false,  and  wholly  insignificant 
invention  of  these  enthusiastic  path-breakers,  is  one  of  the 
pitiable  and  discouraging  turns  in  educational  history  which 
particularly  deserves  to  be  held  up  for  study  and  warning. 
The  notion  of  an  indispensable  formal  culture  won  from 
familiarity  with  the  logic  and  subtle  spirit  of  the  classical 
languages  in  themselves,  was  fully  worked  out  by  Wolf.1 
And  thus  the  inner  discipline  which  Gesner  had  found  only 
in  the  "  intercourse  with  the  greatest  and  noblest  souls 
that  ever  lived  " 2  and  which  Heyne  indeed  claimed  for 
the  language,  but  had  clearly  secured  for  himself  through 
such  intercourse,  was  given  its  shibboleth,  — formal  disci- 
pline through  classical  philology,  a  watch-word  which 
fortified  every  pedant-philologist  of  the  nineteenth  century 
long  after  sympathy  and  reverence  for  the  original  had 
vanished. 

The  new  method  and  spirit  of  instruction  shifted  the  aim 
of  the  schoolmaster  completely.  What  was  previously  an 
arduous  memory  drill  became  a  progressive  development 
and  training  of  the  judgment,  taste,  and  sentiment.  This 
involved  necessarily  the  interested,  spontaneous  activity 
of  the  developing  mind  of  the  pupil,  and  from  this  new  stand- 
point the  new  school-practice  received  its  most  distinctive 
orientation.  To  this  end  the  contribution  of  another 

1  Wolf,  Rhine  Schriflen,  ii,  pp.  863-871. 

2  Vormbaum,  op.  cit.,  iii,  p.  390. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  37 

movement,  considered  by  the  humanists  as  widely  divergent, 
was  undoubtedly  great,  and  should  be  acknowledged. 

Aroused  by  the  bitter  invective  and  startling  proposals 
of  Rousseau,  a  few  sanguine  but  over-zealous  men  had 
^brought  his  scheme  to  earth  in  a  concrete  organization  —  the 
Philanthrop mum~ol  B  asedow  at  D  essau .  Ziegler  has  shown 1 
how  much  Gesner's  own  views  had  in  common  with  these 
efforts,  and  in  the  light  of  the  consideration  given  them  by 
the  king  and  his  minister  Zedlitz,  it  is  impossible  to  believe 
that  they  were  fruitless.  They  but  exaggerated  certain 
principles  that  found  immediate  foothold.  Thus  in  disci- 
pline, the  use  of  the  rod  was  felt  to  be  incongruous  with  the 
new  purpose  in  view,  and  was  largely  displaced,  as  an  induce- 
ment to  study,  by  forms  of  emulation  that  now  proved 
practicable.  Independent  private  work  on  the  part  of  the 
pupil  seemed  appropriate  to  this  new  attitude,  and  the  formal 
preparation  of  lessons  was  required  first  by  Gedike  at  Berlin.2 
Meierotto's  students'  society  at  Joachimstal  for  the  free 
discussion  of  scholarly  subjects  was  a  new  and  significant 
development.3 

The  diffusion  of  the  new  type  of  education  was  neces- 
sarily a  slow  process.  Its  introduction  depended  upon  a 
new  type  of  teacher,  and  for  this  there  was  little  provision. 
The  state  schools,  with  their  centralized  control,  and  gener- 
ous support,  profited  first;  while  the  Latin  schools  of  the 
small  towns  remained  far  behind  up  to  the  end  of  the 
century.  Following  the  example  of  Francke's  Pddagogium, 
the  new  studies  became  very  generally  a  serious  part  of  the 
program.  History  was  introduced  to  arouse  the  moral  feel- 
ings and  infuse  patriotism;  mathematics,  chiefly  in  applied 
forms,  together  with  the  beginnings  of  science,  to  emphasize 
the  rational  workings  of  nature.  The  old  Latin  grammar  drill 

1  Ziegler,  Geschichte  der  Padagogik,  p.  268. 

1  Paulsen,  op.  «'/.,  ii,  p.  88.  *  Ibid.,  p.  90. 


38  THE  OBERLEHRER 

was  shortened  and  simplified  by  the  use  of  compendiums,  or 
the  frank  adoption  of  the  principles  of  the  New  Humanism. 
Greek  gained  rapidly,  and  German  everywhere  became  a 
fundamental  subject,  taking  the  place  of  the  Latin  dramatics, 
and,  to  some  extent,  of  the  Latin  declamation.  Together 
with  German,  if  not  before,  the  study  of  French  increased. 
In  all  directions  the  severity  of  the  old  regime  was  at  the 
same  time  much  softened  by  the  influence  of  the  new  human 
spirit  abroad. 

2.   Remaking  the  Schoolmaster 

It  was  inevitable  in  a  transition  of  this  sort,  that  the  fire 
of  criticism  should  be  centred  chiefly  on  the  teacher.  The 
reforms  demanded  were  radical;  that  the  demands  were 
urgent  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  figure  of  the  schoolmaster 
after  the  change  is  wholly  unrecognizable  when  compared 
with  that  of  his  predecessor.  One  can  well  understand  what 
a  target  public  opinion,  aroused  by  "  Emile  ",  would  sud- 
denly find  in  the  low,  coarse,  untrained,  and  often  brutal 
pedagogue  who  presided  in  a  majority  of  the  public  schools 
early  in  the  eighteenth  century.  That  he  did  become  the 
centre  of  a  general  critical  and  abusive  interest  is  shown  by 
the  place  he  fills  in  the  drama  and  prose  literature  after  about 
I75O,1  as  well  as  by  the  confidence  with  which  the  popular 
Philanthropinists  attack  him. 

What  the  new  teacher  should  be  prepared  to  do  appears 
vividly  in  several  passages  cited  by  Paulsen.  One  is  from 
Heyne  in  connection  with  his  experience  in  reforming  the 
royal  school  at  Ilfeld: 

At  the  beginning  merely  a  general  survey  of  the  elements  is  neces- 
sary. This  done,  reading  should  begin  at  once,  but  not  after  the 
cursed  method  of  the  schools,  where  a  pupil  is  called  upon  to  "  ex- 
pound ",  i.  e.,  to  translate,  when  he  knows  neither  the  meaning,  nor 
the  individual  words,  nor  the  context;  while  the  indolent  master  sits 

1  Ebner,  op.  cit.,  p.  70. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  39 

in  his  chair  waiting  in  impatient  idleness,  and  responds  at  most  with 
a  disgruntled  sigh.  No,  the  teacher  must  himself  do  everything  for  the 
pupil;  must  be  his  grammar,  lexicon,  and  translation;  must  post  him 
in  advance  on  every  word  which  he  cannot,  or  at  least  does  not  know; 
must  arrange  the  phrases,  develop  the  thought,  impress  it  on  the 
memory,  and  through  the  modest  sum  of  the  boy's  achievements  give 
him  courage.1 

The  sentence  which  appears  in  italics  in  the  above  passage, 
if  open  to  pedagogical  criticism,  could  not  well  be  improved 
as  a  statement  of  the  master's  proper  inner  attitude,  and 
that  is  where  the  most  significant  change  took  place.  Simi- 
larly Gedike,  after  outlining  his  scheme  of  language  study, 
comes  to  the  important  condition  of  its  success : 

To  be  sure  this  method,  like  everything  that  is  useful,  has  its 
difficulties,  and  they  are  not  slight.  Moreover  it  has  little  to  offer 
for  the  comfort  of  the  teachers.  It  assumes  that  they  will  be  hu- 
manists who  desire  to  be  something  more  than  mere  linguists;  that 
they  will  be  men,  in  short,  who  select  not  a  Burmann  but  a  Heyne 
as  a  model  in  their  studies  of  classic  literature,  and  who  are  zealous 
to  follow  this  model  even  though  at  some  distance.2 

The  gap  between  the  demand  and  the  supply  of  this  sort 
of  instructor  was  early  discovered.  It  formed  the  chief 
concern  of  thoughtful  teachers  from  Buddeus,  Gesner's 
teacher  at  Jena,  through  the  entire  line  until  the  new  need 
was  in  a  measure  satisfied  and  the  training  of  teachers 
became  the  almost  unique  task  of  the  philosophical  faculty 
of  the  nineteenth  century  universities.  The  work  of  Gesner 
and  Heyne  at  Gottingen  consisted  in  taking  young  theolo- 
gians, broadening  their  course  in  "  philosophy  ",  (i.  e.  mathe- 
matics, physics,  and  history) ;  then  for  a  year  or  two  steeping 
them  in  classical  study,  much  of  which  was  organized  with 
special  reference  to  school  use.  Under  Gesner  there  seems 
to  have  been  some  practice  of  teaching  in  Gottingen  schools. 

1  Heyne,  Nachricht  von  der  gegenw&rligen  Einrichtung  des  Kgl.  Padagogii  zu 
Ilfeld.     Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,ii,  p.  40. 
1  Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  84. 


40  THE  OBERLEHRER 

With  Heyne,  however,  the  distinctly  pedagogical  features 
dropped  gradually  into  the  background  as  interest  in  philo- 
logical studies  deepened.  Succeeding  Gesner's  quarter  of  a 
century  of  such  activity,  Heyne  sent  out  over  three  hundred 
trained  scholars  from  his  seminar.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  to  find  that  a  new  profession  was  being  discovered; 
theology  was  no  longer  the  student's  only  goal.  The 
Gottingen  professor  Michaelis  observed  the  change  before 
1768: 

For  some  time  past  there  have  been  a  few  who,  in  the  unusually 
wild  resolve  to  make  schoolmen  of  themselves,  have  devoted  their 
time  wholly  to  school  subjects,  without  studying  theology.  In  some 
cases  sheer  love  of  country  or  of  school  studies  is  responsible  for  this 
worthy  resolution;  in  others  it  is  fear  of  the  symbolical  books,  sub- 
scription to  which  is  now  giving  offense  to  many  who  have  studied 
theology.  To  be  sure,  their  numbers  will  be  small  who  think  or  act 
in  this  fashion,  so  long  as  the  school  service  is  so  poorly  paid,  and  so 
long  as  the  public  schools  fail  to  attract  more  children  from  the  higher 
classes.1 

This  development  may  be  noted,  by  the  way,  as  a  partic- 
ularly interesting  illustration  of  the  social  physics  of  a 
teaching  class.  Here  is  a  movement  where  the  opportunity 
is  perceived  and  seized  long  before  the  economic  demand 
exists.  The  new  teacher,  through  a  higher  fitness,  seems  to 
create  his  function  which,  in  this  case,  meets  a  genuine  social 
need. 

A  brilliant  example  of  the  energy  of  the  new  class  of  stu- 
dents now  appears  in  the  person  of  Friedrich  August  Wolf. 
With  characteristic  vehemence  he  demanded,  when  a  stu- 
dent at  Gottingen  in  1777,  to  be  enrolled  not  as  studiosus 
theologiae,  according  to  all  precedent,  but  as  studiosus  philo- 
logiae,  and  carried  his  point  despite  the  Rector's  refusal. 
Doubtless  something  of  this  ruthless  self-confidence  was 
necessary  to  carry  out  the  far-reaching  program  he  set  for 

1  Michaelis,  J.  D.,  RSsonnement  fiber  die  protest.  Universitaten  in  Deutschland, 
i,  p.  146;  iii,  p.  164.  Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  158. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  41 


himself  during  his  twenty  years'  activity  at  Halle.  (Wolf 
is  the  man  on  whom  the  German  Oberlehrer  may  look  as  the 
inteligrtuaT lathey  of  his  profession.  He  it  was  who  created 
theconoTption  of  the  higher  instructor  that  governed  the 
proposals  of  1810.  This  he  did  in  a  threefold  way.  First, 
as  has  been  said,  he  organized  contemporary  classical 
scholarship  into  a  scientific  whole  and  created,  thereby,  a 
dignified  system  worthy  of  comparison  with  that  of  theologi- 
cal doctrine.  Secondly,  he  did  probably  more  than  any  /~ 
other  man  to  convince  the  educated  world  that  this  new  • 
science  was  the  proper  tool  for  higher  education.  And, 
thirdly,  he  shook  off  decisively  and  finally  from  the  educa- 
tional pursuit  of  classical  studies  all  associations  with 
theology  and  the  church. 

J.  F.  Arnoldt  has  brought  together  Wolf's  educational 
utterances  in  a  convenient  volume  from  which  one  is  tempted 
to  quote  at  length. 

Nearly  the  whole  value  of  training  depends  upon  the  skill,  con-       \J 
scientiousness,  and  learning  of  the  masters. 

In  general,  no  one  should  devote  himself  to  a  profession  unless 
directed  thereto  by  his  own  inner  impulse.  Most  certainly  is  this 
true  of  the  teaching  profession;  only  an  extraordinary  love  for  the 
business,  a  love  for  youth  itself  and  a  pure,  religious  zeal  for  working 
in  behalf  of  coming  generations  can  make  endurable  the  unspeakable 
toil  which  is  part  of  this  profession.  Reward  is  out  of  the  question; 
recognition  nearly  so.  The  teacher's  ardor  must  rest  upon  the  con- 
viction that  his  post  is  of  the  highest  dignity  and  that  appreciation 
of  his  service  lives  on  in  the  hearts  of  his  better  pupils.1 

Such  was  the  prospect  that  he  held  out.  The  material  with 
which  he  had  to  deal  is  indicated  in  the  chancellor's  report 
establishing  the  seminar  at  Halle:  scholarships  are  offered 
"  inasmuch  as  most  of  the  young  men  who  enter  the  service 
of  the  schools  are  exceedingly  poor." 2  Wolf's  ideas  of  the 
training  that  these  future  schoolmen  need  appear  in  the  reply 
to  this  report: 

1  Arnoldt,  Fr.  A.  Wolf,  ii,  p.  58.  *  Op.  tit.,  i,  p.  246. 


42  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Their  work  will  necessarily  deal  chiefly  with  languages  and  classical 
studies  inasmuch  as  these  furnish  the  basis  for  all  advanced  scholar- 
ship, and  through  these  interests  the  mental  powers  are  most  generally 
trained  and  kept  in  activity.  Furthermore,  it  is  everywhere  admitted 
that  one  who  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  humanities  can  later 
turn  with  great  ease  to  any  special  branch  of  learning.1 

That  the  original  intention  of  the  newly  established 
Oberschulkollegium  at  Berlin,  was  to  make  the  Halle  seminar 
a  practical  training-school  for  teachers  is  clear  from  the 
correspondence.2  In  the  form  of  a  resignation  Wolf  ex- 
pressly declines  the  task.3  Thus,  as  with  Heyne  at  Got- 
tingen,  after  a  period  of  wavering,  the  pedagogical  idea  is 
definitely  abandoned,  and  purely  philological  training  is 
made  the  basis  of  university  preparation  for  teaching  in  the 
higher  schools. 

At  almost  the  same  date,  1787,  Fr.  Gedike,  member  of 
the  educational  bureau,  and  strong  believer  in  the  current 
pedagogical  tendency,  secured  a  handsome  endowment  for 
a  seminar  in  connection  with  his  Gymnasium  at  Berlin,  — 
the  first  of  the  modern  Gymnasial-seminare.  It  required  as 
prerequisite  an  extensive  preparation  in  the  philosophical 
faculty  of  the  university;  it  then  made  its  members  auxiliary 
teachers  in  the  school,  obliged  them  to  visit  classes,  teach 
under  direction,  and  discuss  the  results  with  the  leader, 
precisely  as  today.4  Its  capacity  was  small  and  its  influence 
was  therefore  limited,  but  it  is  interesting,  at  this  parting  of 
the  ways,  to  reflect  upon  what  might  have  been  had  Wolf 
conceived  his  task  somewhat  differently  and  developed  the 
university  seminar  more  after  the  pattern  set  by  the  practical 
schoolman. 

3.   Beginnings  of  an  Oberlehrerstand 

We  have  been  concerned  up  to  this  point  with  the  intel- 
lectual and  pedagogical  changes  which  contributed  to  make 

1  Ibid.,  p.  248.  2  Ibid.,  p.  250.  s  Ibid.,  p.  251. 

4  Richter,  Gymnasial-Seminar,  Rein's  Encyc.  Handbuch,  iii. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  43 

the  schoolmaster  in  the  nineteenth  century  other  than  he  was 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth,  and  have  considered  him 
chiefly  in  his  individual  capacity.  Before  proceeding  to 
show  the  way  in  which  he  reacted  to  these  changes,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  trace  briefly  certain  external  events  which,  hi 
their  cumulative  effect,  have  operated  to  give  him  a  very 
definite  collective  existence.  For  it  is  chiefly  this  collective 
consciousness  that  inspires  and  guides  him  today. 

It  has  already  been  noted  that  in  the  establishment  of 
royal  schools  under  state  control,  the  sixteenth  century  had 
seen  the  formation  of  a  specially  favored  class  of  masters, 
chosen  from  among  the  best  available  candidates,  and  enjoy- 
ing rather  more  than  the  average  prestige  inhering  in  the 
teacher's  position  of  that  day.  So  far  as  any  outward 
circumstances  that  would  differentiate  these  men  as  a  special 
class  are  concerned,  there  were  none.  Their  training  was 
clerical,  and  their  examination  was  for  the  priesthood  to 
which  they  looked  forward.  So  it  remained,  and  as  such  it 
was  confirmed  in  the  Prussian  Order  of  1718.  This  was 
renewed  in  its  essential  particulars  in  1735,  but  with  a  dis- 
tinction between  higher  and  lower  teaching  positions  in 
which  Heubaum  sees  "  the  first  attempt  at  a  division  into 
two  categories  of  teachers  ".1  The  first  important  step 
toward  the  coming  separation  of  functions,  however,  was 
taken  hi  1787,  with  the  establishment  of  a  separate  bureau 
for  school  affairs  —  the  Oberschulkollegium  —  a  body  to 
which  were  assigned  the  duties  of  examining  and  nominating 
teachers,  of  establishing  seminaries,  and  of  general  inspection.2 
The  author  of  this  measure,  the  minister  of  state,  Freiherr 
von  Zedlitz,  was  of  the  clear  conviction  that  under  the 
administration  of  the  existing  clerical  organization,  efficient 
teachers  were  not  to  be  had,  and  hi  the  improvement  of  the 


1  Heubaum,  Geschichte  des  deutschen  Bildungswesen,  i,  p.  165. 
J  Ronne,  Unterrichiswesen,  i,  p.  76. 


44  THE  OBERLEHRER 

teachers  he  saw  the  all-important  factor  in  uplifting  the 
schools.  The  principle  that  his  policy  involved  was  denned 
beyond  question  in  the  Allgemeines  Landrecht  of  1794,  in 
the  following  terms : 

Schools  and  universities  are  state  institutions.  All  public  schools 
are  under  state  supervision,  and  must  submit  to  the  examinations  and 
inspections  of  the  same.  Teachers  in  the  Gymnasien  and  other 
secondary  schools  are  to  be  regarded  as  state  officials.1 

Here  at  last  are  the  recorded  results  of  one  period  in  the  long 
process  wherein  the  church  has  steadily  fallen  back  before 
the  increasing  power  of  the  state.  Though  but  formal  as 
yet,  the  principle  was  gradually  but  completely  enforced  in 
the  case  of  the  higher  schools,  and  today  the  Oberlehrer's 
capacity  as  Staatsbeamter  is  the  chief  support  of  his  ex- 
ternal dignity.  It  was,  nevertheless,  an  exchange  of  one 
master  for  another.  Along  with  the  distinction  for  which  the 
term  "  Staatsbeamter  "  is  most  prized,  there  has  always 
gone  a  somewhat  sinister  notion  for  those  who  value  intellec- 
tual freedom  and  individuality  above  all  else.  Against  the 
concealed  but  by  no  means  remote  peril  which,  under  a 
paternal  government,  may  threaten  these  priceless  elements 
in  education  the  schoolman  has  been  obliged  more  than 
once  to  be  on  his  guard. 

With  the  disastrous  political  events  of  1806  and  1807  we 
are  not  especially  concerned.  Their  importance  for  the 
spirit  of  German  education  was  indirect  but  very  great.  In 
political  humiliation  came  the  sense  that  all  that  was  left 
was  the  field  of  the  mind  where  the  German  felt  himself 
supreme.  Wisely  led  by  Stein  and  Humboldt,  and  reas- 
sured by  the  superb  confidence  of  Fichte  and  Schleiermacher 
the  nation  developed  a  unity  of  patriotic  feeling  that  has 
never  left  it.  In  the  scholar  this  combined  readily  with  the 
religious  note  already  present  in  his  attachment  to  Greek 

1  A.  L-R.  im  12.  Tit.  des  ii.  Teils,  i,  9,  65.     Cf.  Ronne,  op.  cit.,  i,  pp.  221  S. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  45 

antiquity,  and  whereas,  in  the  preceding  decade,  the  leaders 
had  been  a  bit  uncertain  in  their  political  allegiance,  there 
was  no  hesitation  now;  it  was  "  Deutschland  uber  Alles  " 
but  Deutschland  permeated  and  transformed  by  the  spirit 
of  the  Greek  ideal. 

The  practical  issue  of  this  inward  baptism  of  the  spirit 
became  immediately  evident  in  the  organization  of  the 
schools,  which  proceeded  from  1808  on.  For  us  the  dis- 
placement of  the  Oberschulkollegium  by  a  ministerial  Sek- 
tion  in  1808,  and  the  erection  of  the  latter  into  an  indepen- 
dent Ministerium  in  1817,  is  unimportant  except  as  showing 
the  progressive  development  of  the  state  administration  of 
the  schools.  But  a  step  of  the  very  first  importance,  a  step 
which  marks,  indeed,  the  turning  point  in  the  history  of  the 
secondary  school,  was  taken  in  1810.  In  this  year  was 
issued  the  edict  which  created  a  uniform,  professional 
examination  for  teachers  in  all  the  schools  preparing  students 
for  the  universities.  An  earlier  provision  should  first  be 
mentioned  that  was  not  without  importance  in  standardizing 
the  training  of  the  teacher  who  was  now  to  undergo  examina- 
tion. This  was  the  so-called  "  triennium  academicum " 
that  established  a  minimum  of  six  semesters  of  university 
attendance  for  all  who  expected  a  state  appointment.  The 
rule  was  laid  down  in  1804,  and  is  still  in  force.1  That  a 
century  ago  such  a  rule  was  necessary,  whereas  today  the 
average  of  university  attendance  is  at  least  double  the 
number  of  semesters  then  required,  is  significant  of  great 
changes  in  the  interval. 

Of  the  purpose  and  probable  effect  of  the  new  examination, 
Humboldt,  its  originator,  had  a  prophetic  idea  that  has  been 
realized  to  a  surprising  degree. 

"  The  result,"  he  says,  "  will  be  a  school  conducted  on  educational 
principles,  and  an  association  of  trained  teachers.  And  if  it  is  im- 

1  Baumeister,  op.  cit.,  i,  2d  pt.,  p.  15. 


46  THE  OBERLEHRER 

portant  to  avoid  a  forced  unanimity  of  opinion,  it  is  just  as  important, 
by  means  of  a  sort  of  professional  fraternity,  unthinkable  without  the 
excision  of  alien  elements,  to  develop  a  power  and  an  enthusiasm  which 
the  individual  and  scattered  activity  always  lacks  —  a  power  and 
enthusiasm  which  of  themselves  eliminate  the  poor  teacher,  and  in- 
spire and  guide  the  average  one,  while  strengthening  and  spurring 
on  the  strides  even  of  the  best".1 

The  reaction  upon  the  teacher  could  not  have  been  better 
foretold;  it  is  with  the  greatest  reason  that  the  Oberlehrer- 
class  regards  the  date  of  this  edict  as  its  birthday.  Intro- 
duced ostensibly  to  correct  the  evils  of  arbitrary  appoint- 
ment of  teachers,  it  resulted,  finally,  by  the  nature  of  its 
terms,  in  the  complete  severance  of  their  official  control  from 
the  church  in  whose  hands  the  machinery  of  examination 
had  up  to  that  time  been  lodged. 

In  comparison  with  subsequent  regulations  the  terms  of 
the  edict  are  short.2  Specified  branches  are  philology,  his- 
tory, and  mathematics  only.  Evidently  much  latitude  is  al- 
lowed the  examining  commission,  and  in  this  the  best  spirit 
of  the  New  Humanism  is  apparent.  What  is  desired  is  a 
broad  grasp  of  the  essential  fields  as  wholes,  not  exhaustive 
knowledge  of  limited  topics.  As  the  century  advanced,  this 
principle  underwent  drastic  modifications  in  practice,  if  not 
in  theory,  but  it  is  certain  that  at  the  outset,  the  new- 
humanist  "  Oberlehrer ",  as  he  is  now  for  the  first  time 
officially  termed,  was  conceived  as  a  broadly  cultured, 
wholeminded  individual.  Besides  the  theoretical  examina- 
tion, the  edict  provides  for  a  practical  teaching  test  at  the 
option  of  the  commission.3  This  seems  to  have  been  left, 
as  a  rule,  to  the  local  authority  when  the  candidate  received 
his  appointment. 

1  Grosse,  Beitrage,  p.  7. 

*  Neigebauer,  Die  preussischen  Gymnasien,  p.  229. 

3  Op.  cit.,  p.  230. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  47 

From  1810  on,  the  professional  training  for  positions  in 
higher  schools  was  thus  uniformly,  and  with  increasing 
minuteness,  prescribed.  Subject  to  personal  variations  in 
the  examining  commissions,  professional  identity  was 
ensured,  and  thus  what  is  unquestionably  the  most  powerful 
factor  in  inner  class-solidarity  became  operative. 

The  development  of  a  professional  function  was  of  next 
importance,  and  for  this  an  official  act  of  October  15,  1812, 
furnished  the  necessary  basis.  It  has  a  preliminary  history 
which  has  been  deferred  to  this  point.  In  1788,  the  then 
recently  appointed  Oberschulkollegium  issued  an  order  of 
more  than  usual  significance.  To  regulate  the  attendance 
at  the  universities,  or  more  exactly,  to  exclude  from  access 
to  the  numerous  university  scholarships  a  mass  of  unfit 
material,  an  examination  was  established.  And  to  relieve 
the  university  authorities  from  maintaining  a  standard 
which  might  put  them  at  the  mercy  of  less  scrupulous 
competitors  in  other  states,  this  examination  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  schools  themselves  —  such  as  were  adjudged 
capable  of  furnishing  a  high  grade  of  preparatory  training. 
Left  largely  to  the  school  directors,  this  first  Abiturienten- 
prufung,  as  it  was  called,  failed  of  its  purpose.1  It  is  from 
1812,  therefore,  when  a  fresh  edict  defined  its  provisions 
more  sharply,  that  its  actual  effectiveness  is  usually  dated. 
The  examination  was  to  be  conducted  essentially  as  it  is 
today.  It  consisted  of  a  written  test  in  the  form  of  essays 
in  German,  Lathi,  and  French,  a  mathematical  exposition, 
and  a  translation  from  and  into  Greek.  This  was  followed 
by  an  oral  examination  given  by  the  candidate's  teachers  in 
the  presence  of  the  entire  staff  of  the  school,  of  a  represent- 
ative of  the  immediate  Patron,  (either  the  city  or  a  private 
person  or  corporation),  and  under  the  active  direction  of 

1  Thiersch,  Oeffentlichen  Unterrickls,  i,  p.  462. 


THE  OBERLEHRKR 


a  school  commissioner  (Schulrat)  from  the  Konsistorium 
or,  later,  from  the  provincial  School-Board  to  which  the 
consistory's  educational  prerogatives  were  transferred.  The 
1  test  covered  all  the  languages  that  were  taught  besides 
mathematics,  history,  geography,  and  natural  science;  it 
was  thorough. 

The  effect  upon  the  teacher  of  this  fundamental  over- 
hauling at  the  end  of  a  boy's  school  life  was  felt  in  a  variety 
of  ways.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  apparent  that  it  overhauled 
the  teacher  as  well  as  the  boy;  "  A  good  thing  to  keep  the 
teachers  on  the  jump  ",  as  Wolf  remarked.1  The  written 
tests  were  marked  by  the  teachers  concerned,  then  reviewed 
by  the  school  commissioner,  who  sent  them  on  to  the  exam- 
ining commission  at  the  university.  Bearing  the  observa- 
tions of  these  two  authorities,  the  papers  went  back  to  the 
teacher,  "  so  that  with  a  two-fold  inspection  of  their  work, 
the  masters  of  the  Gymnasium  have  a  sufficient  inducement 
and  spur  to  the  utmost  accuracy."  2  The  oral  examination 
in  the  presence  of  colleagues  and  under  the  eye  of  a  critical 
inspector  was  surely  no  less  of  a  stimulus.  With  the  excep- 
tion of  the  participation  of  the  university  commission,  which 
is  now  omitted,  the  procedure  is  the  same  today.  The  effect 
of  this  constant  exposure  to  expert  criticism  has  proved 
beyond  question  a  wonderful  tonic  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
Oberlehrer's  intellectual  fitness. 

A  second  effect  of  the  Abiturienten-priifung,  less  direct  but 
very  influential  in  increasing  the  prestige  both  of  the  master 
and  the  school,  lay  in  the  fact  that  it  was  given  by  the  master 
of  the  school.  When  compared  with  a  system  of  state 
examinations  such  as  prevails  in  France,  for  example,  the 
advantage  for  the  dignity  and  self-respect  of  the  master 
becomes  apparent.  Public  attention  is  focussed  upon  the 
school  as  an  authority,  not  merely  as  a  tool;  the  master  is 

1  Grosse,  Beitrage,  p.  n.       *  Thiersch,  Oefentlkhen  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  465. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  49 

in  the  position,  outwardly  at  least,  of  a  judge  of  the  pupil 
whose  development  he  has  in  part  determined,  rather  than 
of  a  coach,  cramming  a  lad  for  a  wholly  external  and  artificial 
estimate.1 

In  the  third  place,  the  new  arrangement,  though  it  did  not 
originate  it,  was  a  very  decided  advance  in  the  formulation 
of  the  much  discussed  system  of  qualifications  (Berechti- 
gungswesen)  which  plays  a  mighty  role  hi  German  educa- 
tion from  this  time  forth.  The  examination  qualified  for 
study  at  the  university.  The  latter  continued  to  maintain 
its  nominal  entrance  test  practically  for  all  comers,  including 
those  who  failed  in  the  Abiturient.  But  the  load  of  these 
"  conditioned  "  "  invalids,  who  allowed  no  lecture  of  their 
future  examiners  to  go  unbooked  or  unpaid " 2  finally 
became  intolerable,  and  in  1834  the  Abiturientenprufung 
was  made  the  sole  qualifying  test.  Besides  this  right  of 
university  study  was  one  earned  earlier  in  the  course  at  the 
Gymnasium  which  freed  the  possessor  from  military  service, 
or,  after  1814,  entitled  him  to  a  one-year  service  only.3 
These  two  valuable  privileges,  thus  associated,  worked 
wonders  in  the  social  attitude  toward  the  Gymnasium. 
Combined  with  the  genuine  excellence  of  the  schools,  this 
factor  brought  the  German  higher  classes  as  a  unit  under 
the  influence  of  a  single  institution.  On  the  one  hand,  poor 
material  tended  to  disappear  from  such  schools  as  were 
selected  to  give  this  examination,  and  on  the  other,  private 
tutors  were  abandoned,  and  special  institutions  lacking  the 
power  of  "  qualification  "  (Berechtigung)  were  obliged  to 
adjust  themselves  to  other  purposes.  All  of  this  could 
not  fail  to  operate  powerfully  in  raising  the  social  position 
of  that  carefully  selected  class  of  men  now  in  charge.  A 

1  Mey,  Frankreichs  Schulen,  p.  73. 

2  Thiersch,  Oeffentlichen  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  464. 

1  Steinbart  in  Rein's  Encyc.  Handbuch,  i,  p.  327. 


50  THE  OBERLEHRER 

man  who,  as  a  public  servant,  is  intrusted  with  the  nine- 
years-long  training  of  sons  of  the  nobility,  and  even  with 
that  of  the  Crown  Prince  of  the  Empire,  as  was  the  case  in 
Cassel,  1877,  can  be  no  casual  product;  he  must  be  a  man 
who  commands  and  receives  the  esteem  of  his  patrons. 
It  may  reasonably  be  urged  that  the  profession  has  received 
an  artificial  and  bolstered  dignity;  that  it  has  become  a 
"  protected  industry  ",  if  you  will,  lifted  out  of  the  free  opera- 
tion of  social  forces  and  given  arbitrary  status.  Even  thus, 
however,  it  has  been  compelled  to  justify  itself  in  the  long 
run,  and  the  conditions  of  its  development  and  operation  are 
still  instructive  for  a  free  society. 

Lastly,  mention  must  be  made  of  the  exceedingly  import- 
ant reaction  of  the  examination  on  the  school  itself,  and  thus 
on  the  form  and  function  of  instruction.  Uniform  regulations 
for  examination  implied,  as  an  inevitable  consequence,  the 
more  or  less  uniform  regulation  of  the  course  of  study.  This 
followed  informally  at  first,  and  not  as  a  fixed  requirement. 
But  the  natural  tendency  was  to  use  the  government  stand- 
ard more  and  more  as  a  model.  As  this  tendency  became 
increasingly  general,  the  lines  of  distinction  between  different 
types  of  schools,  or  at  least  between  Gymnasien  and  other 
schools,  became  increasingly  clear.  This  cleavage  began 
with  the  issuance  of  the  first  examination  order  of  1788;  and 
with  the  classification  of  1^832,  the  non-Gymnasien  were 
accorded  a  fixed  status. 

The  isolation  of  the  Gymnasien  from  the  mass  of  Latin 
schools,  good  and  bad,  of  which  they  were  a  part  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  was  thus  accomplished.  They  stand 
out,  henceforth,  as  distinct,  clearly  conceived  units,  institu- 
tions with  a  single,  well-defined,  and  inspiring  function  —  to 
give  the  future  leaders  of  the  nation  their  intellectual  and 
moral  foundation.  They  are  in  the  hands  of  a  set  of  men 
with  adequate  and  identical  training  ad  hoc,  sifted  by  an 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  51 

everywhere  similar  process,  and  dealing  throughout  with  the 
same  problems  and  a  homogeneous  material.  It  is  now  in 
place  to  observe  the  change  that  has  occurred  in  the  per- 
sonal characteristics  of  the  teacher  as  a  result  of  this  long 
and  eventful  transition. 

4.    The  New-Humanist  Oberlehrer 

Recall  the  schoolmasters  of  the  eighteenth  century 
through  Freytag's  picture: 

A  pathetic  tribe,  inured  to  renunciation,  often  broken  in  health 
as  the  result  of  the  life  of  hardship  and  privation  through  which  they 
had  worked  their  way!  There  were  geniuses  of  every  description; 
perverse  and  obnoxious  fellows  in  plenty;  even  the  more  capable 
majority  had  no  considerable  knowledge.  Their  lot  in  life  was  to 
rise  slowly  from  Sexto,  or  Quinla  perchance  to  the  distinction  of  a 
co-rectorate,  with  a  slender  increase  in  their  meagre  income.  Their 
keenest  pleasure  was  to  discover  now  and  then  a  brilliant  pupil  in 
whom,  together  with  the  refinements  of  Latin  sentence  structure  and 
prosody,  some  hobby  or  other  could  be  implanted,  perhaps  some 
heathenish  notion  of  human  greatness,  —  an  insight,  however,  to 
which  in  later  years,  the  boy  could  revert  only  with  a  smile.1 

With  this  compare  the  criticism  of  the  South-German, 
Thiersch,  made  about  1838,  and  representing  the  Ober- 
lehrer where  the  previous  twenty  or  thirty  years  had  placed 
him. 

I  These  causes  —  their  intellectual  distinction,  splendid  professional  I 
ability,  respectable  salary,  and  prospects  in  proportion  to  inner  worth 
—  taken  together  with  the  considerate  treatment  of  schoolmen,  have 
elevated  them  as  a  class  pari  passu  with  their  increase  in  efficiency, 
integrity,  and  skill,  and  have  won  for  them,  in  most  provinces,  a 
respect  and  recognition  in  social  circles  which  formerly  they  did  not 
possess,  and  which  reacts  most  advantageously  upon  them  and  their 
condition.  A  young  Oberlehrer  of  prominence  is  therefore  secure  in 
his  social  position ;  he  is  the  peer  of  officials  in  other  classes,  including 
the  highest,  and  every  year  brings  instances  of  marriages  between 
Oberlehrer  and  women  from  the  leading  families  in  civil  service  — 
those  of  generals,  state  councillors,  provincial  executives  or  directors.2 


1  Freytag,  Bilder  aus  d.  d.  Vergangenheit,  iv,  p.  122. 
1  Thiersch,  Oeffentlichen  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  460. 


52  THE  OBERLEHRER 

These  are  two  totally  different  figures.  One  is  still  the 
mechanic,  the  laborer,  oblivious  to  the  significance  of  the 
task  at  which  he  toils;  the  other  is  an  inwardly  developed, 
self-centred  personality,  conscious  of  an  important  mission 
and  easily  master  of  the  means  with  which  to  fulfill  it.  As 
has  been  seen,  the  change  found  its  outward  support  and 
encouragement  in  altered  political  and  social  relations,  but 
its  essence  is  an  intellectual  and  spiritual  transformation. 
The  schoolmaster  is  no  longer  a  forlorn  and  ridiculous  peda- 
gogue, alien  to  the  refinement  of  his  time  and  standing 
wholly  apart  from  its  intellectual  aspiration  and  achieve- 
ment. He  has  become  the  chief  interpreter  of  those  aspira- 
tions, the  bearer  and  conscious  trustee  of  the  nation's  ideals. 
In  place  of  the  old  clerical  task-master  either  living  in 
impatient  scorn  of  his  trying  duties  and  longing  for  the  day 
of  his  release,  or,  if  the  promise  of  this  has  failed,  dwindling 
to  small  proportions  in  weakness  and  self-depreciation,  - 
in  place  of  this  has  come  a  man  of  power  with  eyes  and  heart 
upon  his  work;  one  whose  religion  now  clothes  and  warms 
an  absorbing  human  purpose,  and  whose  mind  is  open  for  a 
life  of  growth  and  ripening  insight. 

The  work  of  training  boys  to  an  appreciation  of  the  Good, 
the  True,  and  the  Beautiful  calls  for  a  nature  different  from 
that  demanded  for  drill  in  grammar.  Add  to  the  faith  in  this 
trinity  the  further  conviction  that  the  Good,  the  True,  and 
the  Beautiful  are  the  supremely  Useful,  and  that  all  together 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  noble  patriotism,  ancL^ou  haYfe._the 
dominant  motives  of  the  new-humanist  Oberlehrer.  But 
the  maintenance  of  such  ideals  would  probably  not  have  been 
possible  without  a  fundamental  shift  in  the  point  of  view  and 
method  of  approach  which  characterizes  the  new  period 
when  compared  with  the  old.  The  teacher,  trained  in  the 
stirring  centres  of  intellectual  life  which  the  new  universities 
of  the  eighteenth  and  early  nineteenth  centuries  had  become, 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  53 

shared  perforce  the  new  organic  attitude  toward  all  mental 
activity.  He  was  no  longer  content  passively  to  receive; 
he  himself  must  produce,  create;  only  thus  could  he  enter 
into  sympathetic  relations  with  the  works  and  workers 
of  antiquity.  True,  his  predecessor  had  produced  industri- 
ously, but  the  results  were  after  all  only  new  arrangements  of 
objective  puzzle-elements.  To  his  new  vision,  the  whole 
mass  of  individual  human  experience  lay  disclosed  and  wait- 
ing to  be  expressed  in  rare  and  beautiful  forms;  the  personal, 
inner  being  was  challenged  to  reveal  itself.  This  conception 
o'f  education  the  schoolman  brought  to  bear  at  once  upon  the 
pupil.  He  set  himself  to  explore  his  nature,  and  with  the 
magic  instrument  of  classical  lore,  to  mould  the  spirit  of  the 
youth  to  a  "  harmonious  whole "  through  self-activity. 
Thus,  in  theory  at  least,  the  child  became  the  centre  of  the 
process.  His  schooling  is  no  longer  merely  the  necessary  and 
disagreeable  preliminary  operation  of  former  times;  it  has 
a  vast  absolute  worth  in  itself.  The  new-humanist  becomes 
a  zealot,  outstripping  his  contemporaries  in  the  church. 
Wolf,  on  fire  with  his  new  ideals,  despised  both  church  and 
clergy,  and  his  personality  and  conceptions  reacted  power- 
fully on  the  class  that  he  had  helped  to  create.  The  sanction 
of  their  work  was  the  profound  conviction  of  its  final  and 
eternal  import. 

In  spite,  however,  of  lofty  ideals  of  "  harmonische  Bildung  " 
as  applied  to  the  pupil,  the  dominating  trait  of  the  scholar- 
teacher  was  his  absolute  reverence  for  scholarship  which 
he  came  more  and  more  to  identify  with  Bildung. 
The  means  to  this  end  came  in  his  eyes  to  suffice  for  all 
pedagogical  "  method  ",  a  superfluity  for  which  he  had  a 
cordial  contempt.  In  the  absence,  therefore,  of  any  well- 
ordered  science  that  could  confer  external  dignity  upon  this 
business  of  his  with  boys,  a  business  that  he  no  longer  under- 
valued, he  founded  his  claim  to  public  consideration  on  his 


54  THE  OBERLEHRER 

scholarship,  and  therein  took  rank  close  behind  the  univer- 
sity professor.  Indeed,  to  join  the  ranks  of  the  latter  was 
the  goal  of  his  literary  ambition,  and  during  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  such  promotions  were  frequent. 
Even  today,  as  Paulsen  declares,  the  teaching  staff  of  one  of 
the  larger  Gymnasien  could  at  any  moment  take  over  a  con- 
siderable portion  of  the  duties  of  the  philosophical  faculty 
in  a  university.  Thereon  primarily  rests  the  prestige  of 
the  German  Oberlehrer-class;  its  members  are  judged  and 
valued  as  scholars  rather  than  as  teachers.1 

On  the  financial  side  there  has  doubtless  been  some 
improvement,  as  Thiersch  noted  in  1838.  Most  of  the  old 
humiliating  duties  with  their  pittances  attached  had  dis- 
appeared one  after  the  other.  A  Konigsberg  rector  in  1808 
was  still  paid  as  follows:  salary,  138  Talers;  legacies,  27 
Tl.;  excise  reimbursements,  n  Tl. ;  burial  fees,  50  Tl.; 
singing  in  the  Gregorius  circuit,  10  Tl.;  fuel  money,  120 
Tl.;  tuition,  640  Tl.  Total,  996  TL,  the  value  of  which 
may,  perhaps,  be  estimated  by  comparison  with  Paulsen's 
quotation  of  400  Tl.  as  the  expenses  of  a  modest  student  at 
the  University  of  Halle  about  1 780.  The  assistant  teachers 
at  Konigsberg  received  less,  of  course,  down  to  496  Tl. ;  the 
cantor,  332  Tl.2  By  1830,  the  boys'  singing  circuits  had 
generally  disappeared,  and  the  salary  of  the  instructors 
seems  to  have  come  in  a  fixed  amount,  though  not  greatly 
increased.  Thus  a  well-endowed  school  at  Eisleben  pays  in 
1836,  from  508  Tl.  to  798  TL  to  its  class  teachers;  to 
the  rector  1113  TL3  For  1820,  Lexis  puts  the  average 
income  for  directors  as  low  as  700  TL,  and  for  the  assis- 
tants, 300-400  Tl.4  Thiersch  would  seem,  therefore,  to 
have  been,  perhaps,  pardonably  optimistic  in  his  ascription 
of  a  "  respectable  salary  ".  In  his  economic  situation  the 

1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  389.  3  Grosse,  Beitrage,  p.  18. 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  159,  162,  388.  4  Lexis,  Besoldungsverhaltnisse,  pp.  7  ff. 


TEE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  55 

Oberlehrer  in  1820  faced  a  long  and  wearisome  struggle 
which  only  the  last  decade  has  brought  to  a  satisfactory 
issue.  This  will  be  touched  upon  later.  It  is  well,  however, 
to  observe  here  that  the  sequence  previously  noted  is  still 
maintained  —  training,  personal  fitness,  and  adequate  service 
come  first  followed  later  by  economic  reward  as  a  result. 

In  literature,  Ebner  finds  the  Oberlehrer  of  this  period 
filling  a  position  far  better  than  before  or  since,  though 
naturally  he  appears  in  aspects  that  are  best  adapted  to 
literary  treatment.  Ebner  says: 

During  this  period  there  developed  that  type  of  "  professor  "  who 
exists  even  today  in  the  harmless  jokes  of  the  comic  papers;  the 
professor  with  thoughts  ever  on  his  Greeks  and  Romans,  buried  in 
uncommonly  thorough,  but  chiefly  useless  investigations  which,  added 
to  the  burden  of  instruction,  so  completely  absorb  him  that  the  equip- 
ment of  his  outward  man  is  wholly  forgotten  in  consciousness  of 
inner  worth,  and  trivial  affairs  of  daily  life  are  mentioned  with  dis- 
dain; the  absent-minded  professor,  who  in  season  and  out  of  season 
quotes  his  beloved  ancients,  who  is  almost  invariably  a  bit  "  pecu- 
liar," but  whose  heart  is  nevertheless  in  the  right  place.  There  are 
scarcely  any  poor  teachers  among  these  old  geniuses.  To  be  sure 
their  methods  are  at  times  right  curious,  and  would  not  always  satisfy 
modern  requirements,  but  the  honest  rapture  over  the  antique  and 
its  beauty,  which,  in  spite  of  all  tediousness,  flashed  from  their  instruc- 
tion, affected  the  listener  as  does  any  sincere  conviction.  They  may, 
therefore,  be  called  good  teachers,  if  Goethe's  remark  in  "  Wahher- 
wandschaften  "  is  true,  that  a  teacher  who  can  arouse  appreciation 
for  a  single  good  poem,  has  accomplished  more  than  one  who  hands 
us  down  whole  series  of  nature  forms  classified  by  shapes  and  names.1 

5.   Philologie  und  Philolog 

We  have  surveyed  somewhat  minutely  the  various  factors 
that  converted  the  still  ignoble  schoolman  of  the  eighteenth 
century  into  the  worthy  and  interesting,  if  not  outwardly  as 
yet  wholly  enviable  Oberlehrer  of  the  nineteenth.  The 
latter  shines  still  in  all  the  radiance  of  the  humanistic  enthu- 
siasm to  which  the  fusion  of  Greek  with  German  thought  in 

1  Ebner,  op.  cit.,  pp.  105,  122. 


56  THE  OBERLEHRER 

the  poet-prophets  of  the  nineties  at  Weimar  had  made  him 
heir.  The  remainder  of  this  second  period  sees  a  less  attrac- 
tive development.  Once  more  the  school  becomes  the 
centre  of  a  struggle  involving  opposing  intellectual  forces, 
but  not  as  in  the  eighteenth  century,  when  a  vital  movement 
rejuvenated  a  system  that  was  effete;  we  have  now  to  deal 
with  a  fluctuating  contest  between  that  same  vital  movement 
continued  in  the  new  century,  and  its  own  first  offspring,  — 
classical  philology.  A  final  understanding  has  been,  indeed, 
the  product  of  the  past  few  years  only,  but  as  the  date  of  the 
new  Empire,  1871,  seems  to  form  an  important  turning  point, 
we  use  it  to  mark  the  transition. 

As  indicated  in  our  treatment  of  the  beginnings  of  the  New 
Humanism,  that  development  can  best  be  understood  as  a 
result  of  the  pressure  of  the  time  for  reality,  for  things  alive 
with  which  to  grow  and  be  inspired;  hence  the  sense  for 
the  "  whole  man  ",  hence  the  poetry  and  religious  fervor. 
Over  the  first  two  decades  of  the  new  century  with  its 
immense  educational  strides,  there  presided  still  the  creative 
spirits  of  the  old  —  Wolf,  Goethe,  Schleiermacher,  Hum- 
boldt.  With  the  passing  of  these,  however,  the  refreshing 
glory  of  the  former  time  seems  to  have  grown  dim.  The 
sources  which  they  used  remain  as  before,  explored  into  ever 
diminishing  recesses  by  new  and  more  persistent  scholars, 
but  the  inspiration  has  relaxed.  And  as  this  real  life  ebbs 
away  there  emerges  that  ruinous  doctrine  of  Wolf's  to  take 
its  place.  "  Formal  discipline,"  that  is  the  secret!  Such 
is  the  general  persuasion,  and  lo,  the  text  is  fixed  for  the 
activities  of  the  new  generation. 

That  the  passion  for  classical  studies  was  not  universally 
contagious  even  under  the  spell  of  such  a  man  as  Wolf, 
appears  from  the  latter's  complaints  in  1819,  over  his  half- 
empty  class  rooms.1  The  philologist,  Boeckh,  proposed 

1  Arnoldt,  Fr.  Aug.  Wolf,  i,  p.  277. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  57 

to  force  the  correct  attitude  by  a  state  examination  or 
required  courses  on  these  subjects.  It  is  certainly  illumina- 
ting to  observe,  as  Paulsen  does,  not  without  a  trace  of 
sarcasm,  that  at  this  period,  of  all  periods,  and  especially 
at  this  university  (Berlin),  compulsory  lectures  should  have 
appeared  necessary  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  youth  to  the 
worth  of  a  classical  education.1  They  were  intended  for 
the  benefit  of  students  from  the  other  faculties  of  theol- 
ogy or  law,  who  at  an  earlier  tune  had  thought  it  in- 
dispensable to  listen  to  the  interpretation  of  the  classical 
masters.  The  compulsory  lectures  were  not  introduced, 
and  soon  the  philologues  were  entirely  unter  sick,  ad- 
vancing science  in  highly  technical  courses  of  critical  phil- 
ology under  the  leadership  of  such  scholars  as  Hermann 
and  Ritschl.  Of  the  latter's  love  of  truth,  it  is  reported  that 
he  read  the  entire  Homer  through  between  the  lectures  on 
successive  days  in  order  to  verify  his  statement  that  a  given 
word  occurred  but  once.  Of  another  of  the  same  school,  that 
he  lectured  "  for  the  entire  hour  on  the  four  kinds  of  ink  in 
which  an  old  manuscript  was  written,  and  which  his  keen 
vision,  fine  scent,  or  careful  eraser  had  disclosed  ".2  Such 
men  are  admirable  embodiments  of  certain  desirable  moral 
qualities,  no  doubt,  but  scarcely  commendable  for  the  duties 
of  teachers;  and  their  work,  which  was  typical  of  the  entire 
university  world,  was  reflected  immediately  in  the  men  they 
produced.  The  dearest  ambition  of  the  pupils  of  these 
specialists  was  to  send  back  to  them  from  the  schools,  fresh 
pupils  trained  in  their  methods.  This  was  what  they  had 
learned,  this  they  naturally  preferred  to  teach,  in  spite  of  the 
frightful  student-mortality  among  the  lads  they  dealt  with. 
Herbart  saw  the  root  of  the  trouble  clearly: 

1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  251. 
1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  448. 


58  THE  OBERLEHRER 

The  teachers  in  the  Gymnasien  must  be  philologues,  either  all  of 
them  or  by  far  the  greater  part.  It  is  unavoidable,  therefore,  that 
they  should  concentrate  that  special  interest  which  every  scholar 
cherishes  for  his  own  branch  of  study,  upon  a  point  in  the  past  which 
has  a  most  remote,  often  scarcely  perceptible  connection  with  the 
true  and  significant  interests  of  the  present.  The  pupils,  on  the  other 
and,  are  living  and  growing  in  the  present;  hence  unavoidable 
friction!  The  teachers  become  ill-tempered,  strait-laced,  and  pitiless; 
in  short,  they  cease  to  be  teachers,  if,  indeed,  they  ever  were  such.1 

And  he  appeals  to  experience  for  confirmation.  One  is  not 
surprised,  therefore,  to  find  a  ministerial  warning  as  early  as 
1825  to  the  following  effect: 

The  masters,  mostly  philologues,  give  their  instruction  as  though 
'  all  their  pupils  intended  to  devote  themselves  to  the  study  of  philol- 
ogy. They  engross  themselves  in  long  disquisitions  upon  the  by  no 
means  well  established  use  of  the  particles,  upon  versification,  text 
criticism,  etc.  With  instruction  of  this  character  the  pupils  can 
scarcely  fail  to  shrink  from  studying  a  language  the  whole  content 
of  which  is  presented  in  the  form  of  endless  difficulties  with  which 
they  must  wrestle.2 

So  Thiersch  ten  years  later  observes  the  conditions  and  sees 
little  hope  for  improvement.  He  says : 

The  complaint  is  likewise  made  that  the  seminars  are  merely  giving 
a  theoretical  training  to  the  future  philologue  and  not  a  practical  train- 
ing to  the  oncoming  schoolman;  that  in  not  a  few  cases  their  members, 
on  becoming  teachers,  understand  the  duties  of  their  position  so  little 
that  they  lecture  to  their  immature  pupils  on  the  profoundest  and 
most  refined  interpretations  of  grammar  and  criticism;  that  not  in- 
frequently they  care  solely  for  their  specialty,  have  no  sympathy  with 
youth  or  enthusiasm  for  its  mental  training,  and  thus  prove  more 
of  a  burden  than  an  aid  to  the  institution  which  has  reason  to  be  dis- 
appointed in  them.  It  is  obvious  that  the  remedy  for  this  condition 
lies  only  in  the  reform  of  the  seminars,  but  that  is  difficult  to  bring 
about  and  probably  far  distant.3 

Such  conditions  were  far,  indeed,  from  the  intent  of 
Gesner  or  even  of  Wolf,  whose  pedagogical  ideas  were  re- 
markably modern.  As  Paulsen  remarks : 

1  Herbart,  Pad.  Schriften,  ii,  p.  149.        2  Fischer,  Das  alte  Gymnasium,  p.  21. 
3  Thiersch,  Oefentlichen  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  459. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  59 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  enthusiasm  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury for  education  was  almost  totally  extinguished  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  the  nineteenth  for  scholarship.1 

And  he  gives  an  extreme  case  showing  the  acute  personal 
feelings  which  actuated  the  partisans  of  the  two  views.  It 
must  not  be  forgotten,  however,  as  the  same  writer  makes 
clear,  that,  in  spite  of  frequent  and  glaring  pedagogical  sins 
perpetrated  in  the  name  of  science,  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  school  method  had  been  thoroughly  reformed 
in  the  eighteenth  century;  that  in  point  of  demanding  self- 
activity  as  the  basis  of  education,  Pestalozzi's  reform  for  the 
elementary  school  had  already  been  worked  out  for  the 
Gymnasium  by  such  men  as  Wolf,  Gedike,  and  Meierotto. 

With  the  intent  to  improve  the  existing  situation,  and  to 
give  the  future  teacher  opportunity  for  observing  good 
instruction  and  for  teaching  under  the  supervision  of  an 
experienced  director,  a  Probejahr  had  been  introduced  as 
early  as  1826.  During  this  year  of  preliminary  activity,  the 
candidates  were  to  be  under  constant  inspection  and  direc- 
tion to  determine  "  their  practical  aptitude  and  skill  in 
teaching".  The  pedagogical  aim  was  doubtless  important 
here,  but  the  measure  is  embedded  chronologically  in  a  mass 
of  politically  reactionary  legislation  that  makes  an  ulterior 
motive  plausible.  Thus  an  order  of  1819  demands  from  the 
Consistorien  minute  reports  of  the  moral  character  of  candi- 
dates; 2  in  1824,  the  moral  and  theological  examination  is 
made  more  rigid,3  and  in  1833,  what  is  possibly  the  main 
intent  of  the  Probejahr  finds  expression  thus : 

The  Probejahr  furnishes  the  royal  provincial  school  board  with  an 
unfailing  and  convenient  opportunity  to  inform  itself  minutely  in 
respect  to  the  candidates  for  teaching  positions  before  they  are  yet 
appointed,  and  to  learn  not  only  their  moral  and  religious  make-up, 
but  especially  their  political  principles,  and  it  is  hoped  that  the 
opportunity  will  be  used.4 

1  Paulsen,  op.  cit.,  ii,  p.  275.  *  Ibid.,  p.  233. 

1  Neigebauer,  op.  cit.,  p.  282.  4  Ibid.,  p.  299. 


6<D  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Whatever  the  purpose,  it  is  evident  from  the  quotations  pre- 
viously given,  that  the  Probejahr  had  little  effect.  Ritschl's 
principle  prevailed:  "  He  who  knows  can  teach  as  a  matter 
of  course,"  and  Herbart,  with  a  few  followers,  continued 
laboring  alone  for  a  cause  that  was  not  to  be  officially  recog- 
nized until  1890. 

This  absorption  in  his  science  and  aversion  for  the  practi- 
cal problems  of  his  art,  the  solution  of  which  would  have 
brought  him  into  touch  with  reality,  were  apparently  the 
primary  causes  for  the  inner  estrangement  of  the  teacher 
from  world-interests,  an  estrangement  that  increased  as  the 
century  passed.  External  events  contributed  to  the  same 
results.  The  measures  of  reactionary  politics  that  followed 
closely  upon  the  War  for  Liberation  have  been  already 
alluded  to.  With  the  exception  of  the  brief,  but  exciting 
experiences  of  1848,  this  was  the  heavy  atmosphere  in  which 
the  teacher  lived  until  the  storms  of  1866-1871  cleared  the 
air.  With  Johannes  Schulze  as  moving  spirit  in  the  ministry 
there  began,  in  1818,  a  bureaucratization  of  the  whole 
educational  system  that  left  scarcely  a  detail  unregulated. 
Schools  that  previously  had  owed  much  to  local  pride  and 
support  became  now  indistinguishable  units  in  the  great 
system.  Teachers  and  directors  who  before  had  enjoyed 
more  or  less  individual  initiative  now  saw  their  efforts  cast 
more  and  more  into  the  general  groove.  Personality  in 
leadership  yielded  to  the  regulated  colorlessness  of  official- 
dom. Not  only  outward  self-direction,  but  even  the  in- 
ward attitude,  especially  political,  became  the  subject  of 
a  sort  of  police  control.  Such  pressure  could  not  but 
drive  the  scholar,  already  a  sober  plodder  by  virtue  of 
his  usually  humble  origin,  and  partly  paralyzed  by  his 
long,  exclusive  intercourse  with  books,  still  further  in  upon 
himself. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  6l 

Further,  the  Oberlehrer,  though  recognized  as  state  offi- 
cials by  the  Landrecht  of  I8O4,1  received  no  official  ranking 
with  such  officers.  For  directors  and  so-called  "  professors  ", 
(old  and  distinguished  teachers)  this  came  first  in  1843;  f°r 
the  Oberlehrer  such  ranking  was  felt  to  be  unnecessary  owing 
to  the  close  connection  still  unconsciously  assumed  between 
the  teachers  and  the  clergy.  So  Lexis  defines  the  situation : 

The  secondary  masters  remained  still  as  it  were  in  the  shadow  of 
theology.  Even  though  their  official  character  had  been  expressly 
recognized  in  the  Allgemeinen  Landrecht,  they  stood  nevertheless,  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world,  wholly  apart  from  the  judicial  and  administra- 
tive officials,  and  were  classed  with  the  clergy  —  were  ranked,  indeed, 
after  the  latter.  Far  from  the  ways  of  the  world  and  with  scorn  for 
earthly  pleasures,  they  were  expected  to  dedicate  themselves  to  their 
pursuit  of  ideals;  their  material  situation,  therefore,  was  ordered 
approximately  on  the  scale  of  the  lowest  paid  parson.2 

Thus  conditions  were  not  favorable  for  self-assertion,  for 
initiative  and  innovation.  The  teacher's  work  had  become 
immeasurably  more  significant,  and  his  social  status  had 
improved,  though  not  correspondingly.  But  that  confidence 
of  place  and  power  which  ripens  out  of  long  and  conscious 
adjustment  of  personnel  with  function  was  not  yet  his.  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  that  such  men,  thoroughly  indi- 
vidualized by  training  and  working  under  varied  conditions 
for  a  paternal  and  suspicious  government,  could  scarcely 
have  arrived  at  a  productive  class-consciousness.  The 
famous  director  Spilleke,  though  praising  the  class  as  a 
whole,  "  since  there  exist  no  more  conscientious,  industrious, 
and  loyal  officials  than  they  "  complains  of  just  this  lack. 
"  Free  unions  and  societies  are  springing  up  everywhere  — 
artists,  mechanics,  physicians,  and  especially  the  elementary 
teachers  are  uniting,  but  of  any  organization  of  secondary 
masters  you  hear  not  a  word  ".3  This  about  1830. 

1  See  above,  Ch.  ii,  Sect.  3.  *  Lexis,  Besoldungsverhaltnisse,  p.  3. 

3  Grosse,  op.  tit.,  p.  24. 


62  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Over  against  this  collective  lethargy  of  the  Oberlehrer,  it 
is  suggestive  to  place  an  expression  of  thie  ministry  in  1845. 
On  January  22,  there  passed  from  Eichhorn,  the  Minister 
of  Education,  to  Flottwell,  Minister  of  Finance,  a  proposal 
'  that  the  salary  of  the  Oberlehrer  and  the  judges  of  the  first 
instance  should  be  regulated  on  the  same  basis.  This  was 
at  once  agreed  to  in  principle,  and  found  expression  the 
following  year  in  a  public  statement  to  the  effect  "  that  by 
this  parallel  rating  of  these  two  sets  of  officials  the  position 
assigned  to  the  directors  and  teachers  in  the  Gymnasien  was 
none  too  high  "-1  In  this  proposal  there  was  set  up  the 
ladder  on  which,  during  the  next  sixty-four  years,  the 
Oberlehrer  climbed  into  his  present  position  in  the  public 
service.  The  steps  in  this  achievement  will  be  enumerated 
later,  but  the  point  is  interesting  in  the  present  connection 
for  two  reasons :  first,  the  principle  was  established  at  a  time 
when  the  Oberlehrer  was  collectively  helpless.  Personally, 
he  had  little  thought  of  such  advancement;  his  recent  eleva- 
vation  as  a  class  had  been  great  and  rapid,  and  he  was 
scarcely  more  than  at  home  in  his  new  position.  The  new 
proposition  came,  then,  as  a  deliberate  announcement  of 
government  policy.  The  teacher,  traditionally  humble 
and  of  secondary  consideration,  was  to  be  placed  side  by  side 
in  official  importance  with  the  judge,  a  figure  whose  aristo- 
cratic prestige  went  back  to  the  Reformation.  Previously 
classed  with  clergy  and  treated  accordingly,  his  new  col- 
leagues in  the  public  mind  were  to  be  a  purely  secular 
class,  with  whom  he  was  to  share  the  first  honors  in  the 
state.  Such  was  certainly  the  meaning  of  Eichhorn's 
proposal. 

The  second  point  to  be  noted  is  that  in  spite  of  the  insis- 
tent support  given  this  principle  by  Eichhorn's  successors, 
with  few  exceptions,  it  required  nearly  two  thirds  of  a  century 

1  Lortzing,  Gleichstellung,  p.  2. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  63 

to  secure  its  fulfillment.  The  reason  for  this  will  become 
clearer  as  the  Oberlehrer  of  the  next  period  is  discussed,  but 
it  may  be  suggested  here.  The  establishment  of  equality 
between  two  great  social  classes  implies  an  equality  of  the 
functions  on  which  their  social  status  depends,  and  that 
cannot  be  brought  about  successfully,  even  by  arbitrary 
enactment,  without  an  inner  justification  of  the  proceeding. 
It  is  this  inner  justification  which  the  Oberlehrer  of  1845 
largely  lacked,  and  which,  by  1909,  he  had  more  than  ac- 
quired. Surely,  no  one  will  pretend  that  the  shrinking 
scholar,  buried  from  the  world  in  his  philological  studies  and 
abstaining  on  principle  from  seeking  vital  points  of  contact 
with  the  minds  of  his  boys,  was  performing  a  social  service 
comparable  to  that  of  the  judge.  The  latter,  in  spite  of  his 
merely  static  duties,  stood  face  to  face  with  human  life,  and 
was  discharging  his  indispensable  service  with  a  well-prac- 
tised technique  and  a  sure  hand.  That  the  work  of  the 
Oberlehrer,  in  the  cases  of  a  considerable  majority  of  his 
young  subjects,  might  better  have  been  left  undone  can 
hardly  admit  of  doubt.  The  high  goal,  set  in  1845,  there- 
fore, marks  the  place  the  state  would  have  its  schoolmasters 
hold,  rather  than  that  to  be  claimed  immediately  as  of  right. 

6.   "  Formal  Discipline  " 

The  extreme  width  of  the  growing  gulf  between  the  educa- 
tional ideal  and  the  teacher's  practical  efficiency,  was  reached 
during  the  years  of  reaction  after  the  upheaval  of  1848.  The 
year  of  revolution  had  raised  a  prophetic  protest  against 
existing  educational  dogmas,  and  reforms  were  proposed  in 
very  certain  terms:  restriction  of  classical  instruction  in 
favor  of  modern  languages  and  natural  sciences;  restriction 
of  Latin  in  favor  of  Greek;  restriction  of  exercises  in  oral  and 
written  use  of  Latin  in  favor  of  reading  for  the  sake  of  con- 
tent. This  is  the  program  and  its  central  thought  is 


64  THE  OBERLEHRER 

contained  in  one  of  the  theses  formulated  by  Hermann 
Kochly,  the  chief  promoter  of  the  movement: 

It  is  an  error  as  gross  as  it  is  widespread  to  confuse  classical  culture 
with  the  ability  to  speak  and  write  Latin,  inasmuch  as  many  are 
masters  of  the  latter  who  possess  not  a  trace  of  the  former,  and  vice 
versa.1 

But  this  gleam  of  insight  was  extinguished  in  the  failure  of 
the  movement  as  a  whole,  and  the  succeeding  darkness  was 
the  blacker  because  of  it. 

For  its  emphasis  the  reaction  of  the  ensuing  years  went 
back  to  the  sixteenth  century :  grammar  for  the  schools,  and 
catechism  for  the  church.  With  the  second  of  these  terms 
we  are  not  greatly  concerned;  the  cherished  policy  of  von 
Raumer  and  Wiese,  his  chief  adviser,  in  trying  to  reconcile 
heathen  philology  and  an  abjectly  pious  Christianity,  had 
no  lasting  effect  on  the  Oberlehrer,  in  spite  of  renewed 
regulations  aimed  at  his  religious  attitude.  But  the  concen- 
tration on  grammar  is  a  prominent  feature  of  the  stage 
that  higher  education  has  now  reached.  The  ever  increasing 
specialization  in  the  university,  and  therefore  in  the  taste 
and  training  of  the  teacher,  the  steadily  growing  mass  of 
knowledge  weighing  down  each  individual  subject  in  the 
curriculum,  —  both  of  these  factors  had  resulted  in  an 
overloading  of  the  school  program,  and  the  popular  outcry 
against  it  had  been  increasing  in  volume  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  The  new  policy  demanded  unification,  simplicity, 
concentration,  —  an  admirable  purpose  surely,  but  one 
to  be  secured  through  means  singularly  welcome  to  the 
philologue.  Moritz  Seyffert,  director  at  Joachimstal,  put 
it  clearly: 

It  is  the  riches  of  the  spirit  that  have  caused  our  destruction,  and 
we  acknowledge  now  with  shame  and  sorrow  that  only  the  poor  in 
spirit  are  blessed  even  in  education.  We  have  turned  the  mind  of 

1  Kochly,  Vermischten  Blatter  zur  Gymnasialreform,  1847-8.  Heft  i,  These  32. 
Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  tit.,  ii,  p.  469. 


THE  NEW-HUMANIST  OBERLEHRER  65 

the  boy  into  a  receptacle  for  the  most  varied  information  which  he 
could  either  give  back  undigested,  or  assimilate  only  with  immoderate 
effort,  but  which  never  gave  him  the  glad  sense  of  mental  growth. 

Then  comes  the  remedy : 

//  is  simply  and  solely  the  principle  of  formal  discipline  that  confers 
upon  philology,  as  the  medium  of  higher  education,  her  unique  and 
eternal  worth  that  nothing  can  replace,  and  that  constitutes  her  at 
the  same  tune  the  universal  culture-instrument.  The  two  lines  of 
the  Latin  distich  conceal  a  store  of  magic  powers  with  which  anyone 
may  conjure  who  learns  to  put  the  parts  together  for  himself.1 

Of  course  this  is  none  other  than  the  miserable  procedure  of 
the  seventeenth  century  suddenly  become  philosophical  and 
distinguished.  The  doctrine  of  formal  discipline  here  reigns 
unchallenged  over  a  sterile  soil  from  which  Wolf  or  Heyne 
would  have  been  the  first  to  turn  away.  It  must  not,  indeed, 
be  supposed  that  Seyffert's  poor,  contracted  vision  reached 
the  furthest  horizon  of  his  time.  Wiese,  the  moving  spirit 
in  the  ministry,  in  discussing  the  teacher's  examination 
regulations  of  1866,  declares  emphatically  that  "  the  teacher 
is  not  desired  to  be  the  exclusive  representative  of  a  scientific 
specialty,  but  is  expected  to  participate  in  the  task  of  the 
school  as  a  whole,  whether  it  be  training  or  instruction  ".2 
And  he  hoped,  precisely  as  Schulze  did  in  1831,  to  make  sure 
of  an  all-round  training  by  retaining  the  general  examinations 
in  religion,  history,  philosophy,  pedagogy,  geography,  ancient 
languages,  and  French,  although  great  freedom  was  allowed 
in  selecting  major  subjects.3  But  his  task  was  hopeless; 
such  measures  were  quite  inadequate.  As  long  as  teachers 
were  trained  from  Seyffert's  point  of  view  in  the  universities, 
a  reform  by  means  of  regulations  was  impossible.  And  as 
late  as  1872,  there  were  thirty-eight  philologists  from  the 
school  of  Friedrich  Ritschl,  serving  as  Gymnasium  directors.4 

1  Seyffert,  Das  Privatstudium.     Cf.  Paulsen,  op.  tit.,  ii,  p.  500. 

2  Wiese,  Lebenserinnerungen,  i,  p.  308. 

1  Wiese,  Verordnungen  und  Gesetze,  ii,  p.  65. 
4  Fischer,  Das  alte  Gymnasium,  p.  26. 


66  THE  OBERLEHRER 

A  fitting  close  to  the  account  of  this  depressing  period  in 
the  Oberlehrer's  career  may  be  sought  in  the  testimony  of 
August  Baumeister,  the  editor  of  the  well-known  German 
educational  compendium.  It  is  given  at  some  length  as  a 
remarkably  expressive  picture  of  the  situation. 

The  ancient  pedantry  put  on  a  new  dress.  Arid  spirits  bored  their 
way  into  grammar,  buried  themselves  for  years  at  a  time  in  the  subtlest 
inquiries  into  the  special  usages  of  their  favorite  authors,  and  then  in 
the  interests  of  sound  scholarship  could  not  deny  themselves  the  satis- 
faction of  giving  as  much  of  it  as  possible  to  the  pupils  —  much  to 
the  sorrow  of  the  latter.  Ciceronianism,  reappearing  as  a  school- 
dogma  at  this  time,  saw  the  highest  goal  of  school  performance  in 
a  laboriously  turned  period;/  text-books  were  prepared  on  the  style 
of  rhetorical  Latin,  the  classical  authors  were  suffocated  beneath  a 
mass  of  usually  quite  superfluous  notes  ad  nauseam  pueri,  and  textual 
criticism  was  carried  to  a  point  worthy  of  a  university  course  in 
philology.  Even  comparative  philology  and  etymological  research 
were  at  once  lugged  into  the  class-room,  and  filled  the  young  brains 
with  such  a  tangle  of  roots  and  stems,  consonantal  changes  and  lost 
letters  that  the  content  of  the  works  that  they  were  reading  was  often 
wholly  obscured.  Such  absurdities  were  quite  the  usual  thing.  I 
remember  in  my  own  experience  seeing  a  class  in  Prima  bored  the 
whole  hour  through  with  the  exposition  and  criticism  of  a  single 
sentence  in  Thucydides,  or  with  two  or  three  lines  of  Sophocles. 

Thus  the  demands  upon  the  pupils  in  the  examinations  were 
excessively  increased,  and  gave  occasion  for  crookedness  of  every 
sort.  I  myself,  shortly  after  becoming  director  of  a  Gymnasium  of 
high  standing,  speedily  discovered  that  the  mischief  of  printed  trans- 
lations was  raging  in  all  classes  down  even  to  Nepos.  An  open 
appeal  to  the  pupils  and  the  promise  of  immunity  brought  in  several 
big  baskets  full  of  these  goods;  and  little  by  little  several  pupils  and 
parents  admitted  that  it  was  solely  necessity  and  desperation  result- 
ing from  the  unreasonable  demands  of  individual  teachers  that  had 
driven  them  to  practise  the  deception.1 

1  Baumeister,  Handbuch  der  Erziehungslehre,  i,  p.  xxii. 


CHAPTER  III 

THIRD  PERIOD,  SINCE  1871 
THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER 

i.   New  Motives 

WITH  the  stirring  events  of  1870-1871,  a  new  era  was  opened 
in  German  education,  one  that  has  distinctly  modified  the 
professional  character  of  the  German  teacher.  The  fusion 
of  the  long-divided  people  into  a  compact  nation  with  com- 
mon aims  and  interests,  brought  to  a  focus,  as  it  were,  the 
many  impulses  to  progress  that  had  been  vainly  seeking 
effective  expression.  Natural  science,  together  with  its 
practical  applications  to  industry,  the  whole  field  of  inven- 
tion, .and  the  resulting  improvement  in  communication  and 
transportation,  had  been  promoted  and  exploited  in  Germany 
as  everywhere  else.  But  nothing  seemed  to  attain  its  proper 
fulfillment  so  long  as  the  political  union,  longed  for  since  the 
Liberation,  was  still  in  abeyance.  It  would  be  difficult  to 
overestimate  the  direct  and  indirect  effects  of  this  national 
factor  in  bringing  about  the  educational  transformation 
consummated  within  the  past  forty  years.  Seyffert,  already 
quoted,1  an  educator  of  distinction  and  influence,  could 
condemn  the  study  of  German  as  superfluous  in  1852. 
Moreover  he  was  of  the  opinion  that  "  the  efforts  for 
national  unity  are  a  blight  on  the  youth  in  so  far  as  they 
detach  themselves  from  the  roots  of  Humanity  in  classical 
antiquity  ".  Today  the  inculcation  of  patriotic  principles 
is  the  most  conspicuous,  not  to  say  obtrusive,  note  in  Ger- 
man training  and  instruction.  This  fact  is  simply  one  phase 
of  a  profound  change  of  relationships.  From  the  very  acces- 

1  See  page  64. 
67 


68  THE  OBERLEHRER 

sion  of  William  I  the  familiar  tutelage  and  distrust  of  the 
people  yielded  to  the  freer  and  more  confident  relations 
between  sovereign  and  subjects  that  encouraged  the  latter 
to  self-assertion.  When  the  nation  came  together,  and  the 
first  thrill  of  a  common  national  consciousness  went  through 
its  members,  all  things  became  new.  The  precious  union, 
so  dearly  won,  must  be  defended  and  maintained.  The 
appeals  to  the  idealism  of  the  Restoration  were  renewed,  but 
on  the  higher  plane  of  a  bold  self-confidence  looking  into  a 
great  future.  In  the  new  consciousness  of  power  and  lofty 
destiny,  all  the  old  tools  were  sharply  scrutinized  and  judged 
as  to  their  fitness  for  the  new  purposes;  such  as  were  outworn 
were  condemned,  and  those  that  were  still  useful  were  re- 
adjusted. 

It  was  inevitable,  therefore,  that  the  early  years  of  the 
young  empire  should  have  witnessed  a  vigorous  over-hauling 
of  that  institution  on  which  it  had  traditionally  staked  its 
hopes.  For  forty  years  the  criticism  has  been  constant  and 
merciless.  The  chasm  between  the  school  and  the  modern 
life  which  it  was  to  serve  became  at  once  apparent  as  soon 
as  the  demands  of  the  new  era  were  clearly  formulated.  Sole 
dependence  upon  classical  antiquity  was  seen  to  be  as  great 
a  national  insult  and  social  blunder  as  was  similar  dependence 
upon  French  culture  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  This  convincing  point  of  view  found  a  convinc- 
ing exponent  in  1890,  when  the  present  Kaiser,  drawing  on 
his  experience  at  Cassel  in  the  seventies,  showed  the  folly  for 
German  ambitions  of  such  education.  Addressing  the  con- 
ference for  school  reform  which  he  himself  had  summoned,  he 
said: 

Anyone  who  has  himself  attended  a  Gymnasium  and  looked  behind 
the  scenes  knows  where  the  trouble  lies.  It  lies  above  all  in  the 
absence  of  a  national  basis  of  instruction.  The  Gymnasium  must 
be  given  a  German  foundation;  we  must  breed  patriotic  young  Ger- 
mans and  not  young  Greeks  and  Romans.  Gentlemen,  the  men  we 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  69 

turn  out  should  not  look  upon  the  world  through  colored  glasses,  but 
should  use  their  own  eyes  and  find  pleasure  in  that  which  immediately 
confronts  them  —  namely,  their  native  land  and  its  institutions. 
In  bringing  this  about  it  is  now  your  duty  to  assist.1 

But  a  change  must  be  brought  about  in  habits  of  mind  and 
character,  as  well  as  in  institutions;  the  new  generation 
must  have  power,  and  in  a  new  direction.  Seeking  the  causes 
for  the  failure  of  the  school,  the  Kaiser  declared  in  the  same 
address : 

The  chief  cause  is  that  the  philologues,  the  beati  possidentes  of  the 
Gymnasium  since  1870,  have  laid  their  main  emphasis  upon  subjects 
of  study,  upon  learning  and  knowing,  and  not  upon  the  cultivation 
of  character  or  upon  the  needs  of  life.  This  tendency  has,  in  my 
opinion,  reached  an  extreme  beyond  which  it  simply  cannot  go. 
There  is  less  value  attached  to  power  than  there  is  to  knowledge, 
a  fact  that  is  clearly  revealed  in  the  demands  made  in  the  examinations. 
It  is  assumed  that  the  pupil  must  above  all  know  as  much  as  possible; 
whether  or  not  that  fits  him  for  life  is  of  minor  consequence.  When 
you  converse  with  one  of  these  gentlemen  on  the  subject,  and  seek  to 
make  clear  to  him  that  a  young  man  should  be  given  some  sort  of 
training  for  practical  life  and  its  problems,  the  reply  is  always  made 
that  that  is  no  affair  of  the  school;  the  chief  function  of  the  school, 
they  say,  is  mental  gymnastics,  and  if  these  mental  gymnastics  were 
properly  carried  out,  the  young  man  would  be  in  a  position,  by  virtue 
of  these  gymnastics,  to  perform  everything  necessary  for  life.  I 
believe  it  to  be  impossible  to  proceed  further  with  this  point  of  view.1 

Because  of  its  source  this  forceful  statement  served  as 
the  climax  of  long-gathering  feeling,  and  the  signal  for  a  fresh 
and  bitter  campaign.  In  polite  literature  since  the  middle  of 
the  century,  the  indulgence  and  amusement  with  which  the 
"  professor  "  was  previously  regarded  gradually  turned  to 
scorn,  and  there  began  "  the  long  series  of  teacher-characters 
drawn  by  a  hateful  pen." 3  The  schoolmaster  appears 
henceforth : 

1  Verhandlungen  iiber  Fragen  des  hoheren  Unterrichts,  pp.  72,  76. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  71. 

1  Ebner,  op.  cit.,  pp.  129,  135. 


70  THE  OBERLEHRER 

as  the  cranky  pedant  or  as  ignorant,  partisan,  and  weak.  The  Ober- 
lehrer  who  buries  himself  among  his  books  and  lives  wholly  for  his 
scholarly,  if  also  mainly  fruitless,  studies,  disappears  more  and  more 
completely  from  literature.  The  teacher  is  brought  forth  into  public 
life  and  compelled  to  take  sides.1 

Similarly,  the  whole  educational  process  and  ideal  becomes 
a  fair  target  for  literary  derision.  After  the  Kaiser  had 
thus  given  comfort  and  prestige  to  the  critics,  the  battle 
went  on  with  renewed  energy.  In  1890,  Langbehn's  little 
book,  "  Rembrandt  als  Erzieher  ",  gave  Germany  a  shock, 
and  caused  the  "  professor  "  to  be  yet  more  coldly  regarded. 

The  "  professor "  is  the  German  national  disease;  the  present 
system  of  educating  youth  in  Germany  is  a  sort  of  Bethlehemitic 
Slaughter  of  the  Innocents;  these  two  facts  cannot  be  often  enough 
repeated.  The  professor  nowadays  actually  looks  down  upon  the 
German  people,  and  the  German  people  look  up  to  the  professor;  these 
respective  attitudes  should  be  reversed.2 

A  whole  literature  of  denunciation  developed  in  sympathy 
for  the  child  "  crushed  beneath  the  '  big  business  '  of  mind 
as  the  pauper  is  ground  down  under  the  '  big  business  '  of 
centralized  wealth  ".3  To  be  consistent  the  masters  of  these 
little  martyrs  must  of  necessity  be  cruel  "  oppressors  "  or 
heartless  "  tyrants  ". 

And  in  the  polite  literature  from  about  1890  on,  the  secondary 
teachers  are  actually  slaughtered  without  mercy,  cut  down  in  troops, 
old  and  young  together,  both  as  instructors  and  as  educators.  A 
school's  whole  teaching  staff  now  appears  in  novels  and  dramas;  we 
listen  to  shop-talk  in  the  teachers'  conference  room,  attend  recitations 
on  the  stage,  and  are  given  glimpses  into  the  private  life  of  the  teachers.4 

Such  a  literature  implies  an  interested  and  sympathetic 
public,  and  such  a  public  quickly  appeared.  As  the  connec- 
tion between  this  new  public,  and  the  growth  of  the  non- 
gymnasial  type  of  school  has  some  significance,  it  will  be 
well  to  pause  at  this  point  to  consider  that  connection. 

1  Ibid.,  p.  130.  s  Ebner,  op.  cit.,  p.  159. 

2  Langbehn,  Rembrandt  als  Erzieher,  p.  94.  *  Ibid.,  p.  157. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  *Jl 

It  has  already  been  observed  that  the  introduction  of  the 
Abiturient  examination  in  1788,  led  at  once  to  a  selection  of 
such  schools  as  should  conduct  it.  The  schools  not  selected 
either  maintained  Latin  instruction  in  reduced  amount  or 
frankly  abandoned  it,  and  assumed  the  form  of  "  people's 
schools  "  (Burgerschulen).  The  entire  group  of  these  latter 
schools  received  provisional  examination  regulations  from 
Schulze  in  1832,  and  were  given  certain  minor  privileges  of 
"  qualification  "  —  one-year  military  service,  admission  to 
the  postal,  forestry,  and  building  services  —  subject  to  the 
requirement  of  Latin.1  Much  abused  under  the  reactionary 
ministries  of  Frederick  William  IV,  as  hot-beds  of  ma- 
terialism and  revolution,  they  received  adequate  recognition 
first  in  1859,  the  birth  year  of  the  Realgymnasium,  and  began 
a  struggle  for  equal  rights  with  the  Gymnasien.  In  1870 
the  university  was  opened  to  graduates  of  the  Realgymnasium 
for  the  study  of  mathematics,  science,  and  modern  languages. 
Since  then  the  bars  have  gone  down  rapidly  before  both 
Realgymnasium  and  the  Oberrealschule,  until,  in  1900,  practi- 
cal equality  of  privileges  was  achieved.  As  a  result,  out  of 
fifty  different  careers  only  four  remain  open  exclusively  to 
graduates  of  the  Gymnasium,  —  theology,  royal  library  ser- 
vice, state  archivist,  and  higher  postal  service.2 

This  progress  is  important  because  it  marks  the  conquest 
of  a  set  of  ideas  which  were  intellectually  disturbing.  In 
1863,  pupils  in  the  Realschulen  of  both  kinds  numbered  46% 
of  those  in  the  Gymnasien',  in  1890,  67%;  in  1910,  107%. 
As  for  total  increase  in  secondary  education,  the  pupils  of 
all  the  secondary  schools  gamed  105%  between  1863  and 
1890,  and  234%  between  1863  and  1910;  while  the  popula- 
tion for  the  same  periods  had  increased  but  62%  and  117% 

1  Neigebauer,  Preussischen  Gymnasien,  pp.  345  f. 
1  Dickmann,  Berechtigungen. 


72  THE  OBERLEHRER 

respectively.1  On  this  basis  one  may  fairly  assume  that 
secondary  schooling  hi  Germany  is  just  twice  as  significant 
today,  hi  proportion  to  the  population,  as  hi  1863.  And, 
further,  that  the  balance  has  now  actually  shifted  numerically 
hi  favor  of  the  modern  instruction. 

A  tabular  comparison  of  the  educational  opportunities  that 
today  are  open  on  fairly  uniform  terms  to  the  German  youth, 
with  those  afforded,  under  similar  conditions,  by  the  curric- 
ulum of  1856,  will  illustrate  clearly  the  two  extremes.  For 
the  sake  of  simplicity  the  provisions  for  singing,  gymnastics, 
and  some  minor  electives  are  omitted : 

1856.'  Gymnasium    1910."  Gymnasium        Realgymnasium  Obcrrealschule 

Religion 20  hours*  19  19  19 

German 16     "  26  28  34 

Latin 86     "  68  49 

Greek 42     "  36  English  18             English  25 

French 17     "  20  29  47 

History \            «  17  17  18 

Geography  .  .  .  J  9  n  14 

Mathematics  ...  32     "  34  42  47 

Natural  Science  .     8     "  18  29  36 

Drawing 6     "  8  16  16 

Writing 6     "  4  4  6 

Total 258  259  262  262 

*  An  "  hour  "  is  one  period  of  recitation  per  week  through  the  year. 

The  above  table  makes  clear  that  the  secondary  school  has 
become  a  matter  of  exceedingly  important  public  concern. 
It  forms  the  well-nigh  exclusive  avenue  to  preferment  and 
distinction,  and  is  at  last  fairly  well  adapted  to  the  needs 
and  abilities  of  a  varied  patronage.  It  touches  life  at  more 
points  and  more  completely  than  formerly.  It  is  far  more 
representative  of  the  intellectual  interests  and  activities  of 
the  nation. 

1  Cf.  Pddagogisches  Archiv,  1910,  p.  526.      Rethwisch,  Deutschlands  hoheres 
Schulwesen,  Anhang  2. 

2  Wiese,  Verordnungen  und  Gesetze,  i,  p.  67. 

3  Lehrplane  und  Lehraufgaben,  pp.  4  ff. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  73 

Political  changes,  then,  bringing  with  them  great  economic 
and  social  vitalization;  new  directions  for  intellectual 
achievement;  violent  agitation  and  attack  upon  old  educa- 
tional forms;  the  rise  of  a  new  educational  ideal  and  the 
extraordinary  public  demand  for  education  of  every  sort;  — 
these  factors  constitute  perhaps  the  most  obvious  forces 
that  have  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  pedant-schoolmaster 
of  the  mid-century,  and  have  greatly  changed,  if  not  quite 
completely  transformed  him.  The  extent  of  his  remaking 
is  not  unlike  the  change  observed  in  the  curriculums  just 
compared.  Actually  to  handle  the  entire  list,  in  its  present 
extent,  is  naturally  not  demanded  of  him,  but  he  has  been 
obliged  to  open  his  heart,  to  extend  his  vision  and  sym- 
pathetic appreciation  to  the  entire  range  of  subjects  offered. 
In  other  words,  he  has  been  adjusted  to  the  mental  life 
and  needs  of  the  world  about  him.  And  coincident  has 
been  his  rise  to  the  social  level  set  for  him  by  Eichhorn 
in  1845. 

2.   Educational  Readjustment 

The  Oberlehrer  class  has  undergone  a  certain  mechanical 
dilution,  as  it  were,  from  its  historic  classical  purity,  through 
the  admission  to  its  numbers  of  instructors  in  the  Real- 
schulen  where  the  classical  philologue  is  of  minor  importance. 
These  instructors  were  themselves,  of  course,  products  at 
first  of  the  Gymnasium  and  university,  but  had  found  their 
careers  in  teaching  modern  branches.  Until  their  institu- 
tions had  won  the  long-coveted  university  privileges,  their 
attitude  was  deprecatory  and  apologetic.  In  the  fifties, 
when  the  Realschule  was  in  especial  disfavor,  it  was  their 
policy  to  convert  it  wherever  possible  into  a  Gymnasium. 
And  even  today  one  who  is  not  a  partisan  of  the  new  forms 
on  principle  is  apt  to  regard  the  Gymnasium  alone  as  really 
distinguished.  On  the  other  hand,  the  more  independent  of 


74  THE  OBERLEHRER 

these  minds,  united  in  the  Realschulmdnnerverein  of  1875, 
fought  tirelessly  for  the  recognition  of  the  new  school-form; 
and  their  success  reacted  as  a  broadening  influence  upon  the 
whole  class.1 

Another  solvent  of  the  old  relationships,  and  one  that 
acted  with  especially  strong  and  subtle  force,  was  the 
organization  of  the  Oberlehrer,  during  the  dozen  years  after 
1872,  into  a  formal  Standesverein  or  professional  associa- 
tion. This  group  made  university  training  alone  the  basis 
of  its  membership,  and  included  men  from  all  types  of  school. 
Its  original  purposes  were  economic  and  social,  hence  it 
exerted  a  peculiarly  compelling  influence  in  abolishing  minor 
differences  that  interfered  with  the  success  of  these  purposes 
and  in  arousing  the  rutted  philologue  to  fresh  and  living 
issues.  There  will  be  more  to  say  of  this  later. 

But  the  chief  feature  in  the  readjustment  of  the  second- 
ary master  is  his  radically  different  conception  of  his  work. 
It  must  be  admitted  at  once  that  this  change  is  as  yet  incom- 
plete, that  many  still  fail  wholly  to  see  whither  the  new 
movement  tends,  and  that  many  of  the  leaders,  among  them 
notably  that  patron-saint  of  the  German  Oberlehrer, 
Friedrich  Paulsen,  find  the  old  ideals  sufficient.  Neverthe- 
less, the  accomplished  change  is  so  great,  and  the  influences 
in  its  favor  are  so  many  and  so  strong  that  further  progress 
in  the  same  direction  seems  inevitable.  As  has  already  been 
seen,  the  purpose  and  goal  of  the  mid-century  education  was 
still  the  "  harmonische  Bildung  "  of  New  Humanism,  but 
with  the  "  harmony  "  reduced  essentially  to  one  instrument 
and  usually  to  one  string  —  formal  training  in  the  classical 
languages.  Over  against  this  set  Rudolf  Lehmann's  sum- 
mary of  the  aims  of  education  in  1900: 

1  Lexis,  Reform  des  hoheren  Schulwesens,  p.  13. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  75 

Not  scholarly  information  as  the  goal  of  the  school  course,  but  cul- 
ture leading  to  an  appreciation  of  the  world  and  of  man,  to  a  high 
moral  conviction  and  practical  efficiency;  knowledge  of  the  past  not 
as  an  end  in  itself  but  for  the  service  of  modern  national  life;  in  the  — 
place  of  formal,  rhetorical  training,  an  intelligent  power  over  actual 
conditions  and  materials  —  that  is  the  dominating  spirit  of  higher 
education  as  it  reveals  itself  in  unity  and  variety  according  to  the 
latest  revision  of  the  Prussian  school  regulations.1 

This  is  the  task  of  a  prophet  and  seer.  It  has  become  pro- 
foundly significant,  challenging  the  whole  nature  in  its 
breadth  of  opportunity,  and  claiming  a  man's  utmost  devo- 
tion for  its  limitless  ideals.  Instruction  has  given  place  to 
education.  The  old  Lehrbeamter  has  become  an  Erzieh- 
ungsbeamter ;  and  his  stature  has  immeasurably  increased. 
To  fill  his  present  position  he  must  be  a  personality  capable 
of  interpreting  all  that  crosses  his  path  in  its  true  and  large 
relations,  and  must  be  bent  on  giving  his  interpretation 
force  and  effective  direction.  To  the  boy  he  "  represents  the 
coming  man  ",  but  adequately  to  discharge  that  responsibility 
he  has  come  to  feel  that  he  may  no  longer  confine  his  relations 
solely  to  the  boy.  He  has  become  the  Kulturbeamter  at 
large.  And  while  the  scholar  in  the  university  is  lost  to 
the  world -in  his  special  research,  it  has  become  the  function 
of  the  Oberlehrer  to  make  the  culture  of  the  university  avail- 
able to  society.  The  university  professor  produces,  the 
Oberlehrer  receives,  unifies,  assimilates,  and  transmits,  both 
in  instruction  and  in  the  example  of  his  whole  mental  and 
moral  attitude.  To  quote  again  from  Lehmann : 

Thus,  unannounced  and  almost  unintended,  a  new  type  of  teacher, 
the  creature  of  social  conditions  in  their  historical  development,  has 
taken  the  place  of  the  scholar-humanist.  This  is  the  man  of  the 
world  who  supplements  his  high  intellectual  pursuits  with  experience 
and  personal  observation,  and  who  seeks  to  realize  a  well-rounded 
and  many-sided  existence.  As  the  priest  or  sage  bestows  upon  his 
disciple  the  mystic  unction  that  he  himself  received;  as  the  scholar 

1  Lexis,  Reform  des  hoheren  Schulwesens,  p.  370. 


76  THE  OBERLEHRER 

trains  his  pupil  to  the  rigorous  toil  of  the  scientist  but  opens  to  him 
also  the  joys  of  knowledge;  so  the  world- wise  teacher  seeks  to  train 
his  pupils  for  the  world  and  for  life.  He  imparts  to  them  not  mere 
theory  but  his  practical  experience  —  all  that  he  has  looked  upon 
and  enjoyed  in  the  world  and  in  art.  Even  the  theory  that  he 
teaches  he  seeks  to  make  fruitful  in  life.  He  would  have  his  pupils 
be  men  who,  accepting  life  in  the  world,  strive  for  a  delicate  balance 
of  their  powers  and  a  finished  fullness  of  their  personality.  And  he 
presents  himself  to  them,  even  in  outward  intercourse,  as  a  model  on 
the  fine  lines  of  the  cultured  gentleman.1 

And  Paulsen,  in  his  address  at  the  founding  of  the  national 
association  of  Oberlehrer  in  1904,  spoke  of  present  conditions 
when  he  said : 

The  instructor  in  the  Gymnasium  must  possess  a  culture  that  is 
more  universal  and  more  comprehensive  than  is  necessary  for  the  mere 
scholar  or  scientific  specialist.  A  philologist  or  a  chemist  can  give 
himself  up  to  his  special  pursuit  without  reserve.  A  Gymnasium  in- 
structor, on  the  contrary,  especially  if  he  deals  with  the  upper  classes, 
must,  to  be  effective,  be  a  man  of  wide  range  of  interests,  of  great 
versatility  of  mind,  of  many-sided  culture,  and  rich  information. 
His  pupils  expect  from  him  little  less  than  that  he  should  know  and 
have  read  everything;  and  he  must  be  versed  not  only  in  the  old  but 
in  the  modern  and  most  recent  literature  as  well.  There  is  no  age  in 
life  that  attaches  such  surpassing  value  to  the  new  as  does  that  of 
the  pupils  in  the  upper  classes  of  our  Gymnasien;  every  latest  solu- 
tion of  the  ancient  riddle,  every  newest  revaluation  of  old  values, 
be  it  according  to  Haeckel  or  according  to  Nietzsche,  every  fresh 
theory  of  matter  or  of  life,  every  discovery  of  yesterday  in  literary 
criticism,  impresses  most  deeply  the  unpractised  mind,  hungriest 
for  criticism  at  a  time  when  it  is  the  least  capable  of  it.  And  woe 
to  the  master  who  knows  or  has  heard  nothing  of  it;  he  is  condemned 
irretrievably  before  the  court  of  youth  as  antiquated  and  outworn, 
as  one  who  has  no  interest  in  the  vital  concerns  of  the  present.  The 
teacher  is  therefore  compelled  continually  to  keep  his  eyes  open  for 
all  that  stirs  the  time  and  the  youth;  the  scholar  may  seclude  him- 
self, but  the  teacher  dare  not  if  he  hope  to  retain  his  sympathy  for 
young  life. 

The  assertion  may  meet  contradiction  but  I  believe  it  true  that 
our  most  industrious  readers  are  among  the  Oberlehrer.  They  are 
certainly  not  among  the  professional  scholars.  These  read  only  what 

1  Lehmann,  Erziehung  und  Erzieher,  p.  152. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  77 

their  current  investigations  or  their  next  book  require.  The  teacher 
reads  that  which  has  significance  for  himself  as  a  man  and  a  teacher. 
I  confess  that  often,  and  sometimes  not  without  considerable  em- 
barrassment, I  have  had  my  attention  called  for  the  first  time  by 
teacher-friends  of  mine  to  new  and  important  productions  even  in 
fields  closely  related  to  my  work.1 

Franz  Eulenburg  urges  the  same  idea,  but  from  a  more 
pronounced  social  standpoint.  Defending  the  present  long 
period  of  preparation  for  the  Oberlehrer,  he  says: 

In  view  of  the  refined  and  highly  differentiated  needs  of  our  civili- 
zation, it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that  the  Oberlehrer  should  be 
men  with  widely  varied  interests  and  education,  and  possessed  of 
keen  aesthetic  enthusiasm.  It  is  not  specialists  or  technical  experts 
in  various  branches  that  we  need,  but  fashioners  of  youth  with  a 
universal  outlook  and  a  universal  capacity  for  assimilation. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  of  prime  importance  that  the  Oberlehrer  turn 
out  scholarly  productions  of  distinction;  it  is  of  importance  rather 
that  they  consume  productively,  in  order  that  they  may  share  in  the 
total  output  and  progress  of  scholarship.  In  this  way  they  discharge 
a  social  function  that  is  indispensable  in  the  mental  life  of  the  nation 
as  a  whole,  and  which  is  comparable  to  that  of  the  merchant.  Just 
as  the  latter  in  economic  affairs  acts  as  the  important  agent  of  ex- 
change, so  must  the  Oberlehrer  act  in  matters  of  a  scientific  and 
scholarly  nature.  The  results  of  strict  scientific  investigation  are 
theirs  to  turn  to  account  and  render  productive  for  great  portions  of 
the  people.  In  the  smaller  cities  they  are  the  trustees  of  the  higher 
culture  and  must  share  in  its  promotion.  That  is  a  task  which  re- 
quires efficient  personalities.  The  better  to  perform  this  weighty 
social  obligation,  the  higher  teaching  class  must  be,  from  the  first, 
in  closest  possible  touch  with  intellectual  affairs,  and  that  requires  a 
thorough  and  prolonged  course  of  study.2 

It  is  clear  that  a  new  profession  hasjinsen  —  that  of  the 
secondary-master  who  can  see  life  steadily  and  see  it  whole, 
whose  business  it  is  to  catch  up  the  latest  achievements  of 
science,  art,  and  religion,  and,  giving  them  their  place  in  his 
whole-view,  inspire  the  new  generation  with  his  vision.  To 
him  speaks  not  only  the  university  investigator,  but  every 

1  Paulsen,  Die  hoheren  Schulen  Deuischlands,  pp.  26  ff. 

2  Eulenburg,  Soziale  Lage,  pp.  54  5. 


78  THE  OBERLEHRER 

writer,  actor,  and  preacher  who  has  a  message.  The  labor 
leader  and  the  social  worker  are  his  constant  teachers; 
economic,  and  political  life  have  to  him  a  clear  course  and  a 
thrilling  meaning.  To  the  adult  he  is  the  sane,  resourceful, 
sympathetic  critic  of  life ;  to  the  eighteen-year-old  youth,  he 
Js  the  fountain  of  idealism  and  the  master  of  the  future. 
Such  men  are  today  teaching  in  Germany  in  no  inconsiderable 
immbejrs. 

The  cleavage  in  function  between  this  class  of  men  and 
the  class  of  university  professors  ought  to  be  increasingly 
clear,  and  is  becoming  so.  The  training,  the  work,  the  out- 
look, the  spirit  and  attitude,  differ  in  toto,  although  some  of 
the  best  friends  of  the  Oberlehrer  to  whom  the  ancient 
traditions  are  dear,  seek  to  minimize  the  fact.  Thus  the 
most  contagious  idealist  of  them  all,  the  one  whose  insight 
and  judgment  has  counted  first  and  most  in  German  educa- 
tion, recurs  ever  and  again  to  the  plea  that  participation  in 
the  advancement  of  science  is  the  sine  qua  non  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  high  worth  of  the  Gymnasium  and  of  its 
masters.  With  generous  appreciation  for  the  other  phase 
of  the  teacher's  work,  he  declares  that  this  and  this  only, 
on  the  part  of  some  at  least,  will  save  the  precious  reputation 
of  the  Gelehrtenschule.1  The  pedagogical  seminar  year 
seems  to  him  unfortunate  in  its  influence  on  such  as  have 
the  scientific  spirit,2  and  the  Probejahr  is  to  his  mind 
wholly  useless.  With  all  this  Paulsen  seems  not  only  not  to 
regard  the  teacher's  new  work  in  education  as  a  full  substitute 
for  his  past  scholarly  achievements,  but  also  fails  so  far  as 
appears,  to  point  out  that  the  field  of  activity  to  which  the 
modern  teacher  finds  himself  more  and  more  confined,  may 
itself  contain  rich  opportunities  for  scientific  observation  and 

1  Paulsen,  Hoheren  Schulen  DeutsMands,  pp.  20  ff. 

*  Paulsen,  Hohere  Lehrerstand,  pp.  10  ff.  Paulsen,  Gelehrten  Unterrichts,  ii, 
p.  626. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  79 

interpretation.  Speaking  of  such  men  as  do,  in  spite  of  a 
burdensome  program,  succeed  in  getting  into  print,  he 
admits : 

A  large  portion  of  them  put  this  through,  often  under  depressing 
conditions  and  only  with  the  utmost  determination;  often,  too,  at 
the  expense  of  health  and  physical  equilibrium.1 

This  Paulsen  deplores  but  approves.  To  him  there  is 
apparently  no  inconsistency  in  urging  men  to  perform,  under 
enormous  handicap,  a  kind  of  work  that  is  essentially  apart 
from  their  profession,  that  divides  their  interests,  and  that 
places  them  in  competition  with  men  who  give  their  entire 
tune  to  that  alone. 

The  impossibility  of  this  demand,  the  injustice  of  it,  and, 
finally,  its  uselessness  under  the  new  conditions,  were  felt  so 
strongly  as  to  turn  the  second  national  gathering  of  the 
Oberlehrer  in  1906,  into  an  earnest  protest  against  it.  The 
executive  of  the  associated  organizations  had  been  urged 
to  send  Paulsen's  address  at  the  previous  meeting  to  the 
various  provincial  school  authorities  as  representative  of  the 
wishes  of  the  Oberlehrer.  This  he  refused  to  do,  and  justifies 
himself  to  the  association  in  the  Mitteilungen  No.  6,  May, 
1906: 

It  is  impossible  for  us  and  certainly  for  the  majority  of  German 
Oberlehrer  to  share  the  conception  of  our  profession  which  the  revered 
speaker  on  that  occasion  set  forth.  We  are  not  scholars;  the  time 
when  we  were  such  is  irrevocably  passed.  The  most,  and  to  be  sure 
also  the  least,  we  can  do  is  to  base  our  activity  upon  a  scholarly 
foundation,  to  maintain  an  unfailing  appreciation  for  scientific  re- 
search, and  to  keep  ourselves  abreast  of  each  advance.  We  con- 
sidered this  difference  in  the  conception  of  our  profession  so  funda- 
mentally important  that  the  chief  address  at  the  second  convention 
—  "  The  Task  of  the  Secondary  Teacher  —  an  Art  founded  upon 
Scholarship  ",  —  was  expressly  arranged  to  supplement  Paulsen's 
speech  in  this  direction. 

1  Paulsen,  Hoheren  Schulen  Deutschlands,  p.  20. 


80  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Johannes  Speck,  also,  the  foremost  promoter  of  a  great, 
national  Paulsen-Foundation  for  the  furtherance  of  these 
ideas  in  memory  of  the  revered  educator,  has  shown  their 
need  of  modification,  and  his  views  represent,  perhaps, 
the  clearest  convictions  among  Oberlehrer  today.  For 
Speck  the  pedagogical  idea  is  indispensable: 

The  school  sets  us  a  profusion  of  tasks  the  execution  of  which 
demands  more  than  mere  scholarship;  indeed,  the  pride  of  scholar- 
ship frustrates  it.1 

Scholarly  activity  has  value 

only  in  so  far  as  it  serves  to  broaden  and  deepen  the  knowledge  that 
must  vitalize  instruction. 

I  am  further  of  the  opinion  that  the  nature  of  our  professional  ser- 
vice may  be  happily  designated  as  an  art  upon  a  foundation  of  scholar- 
ship, if  one  but  bear  in  mind  that  the  maintenance  and  enlargement 
of  this  foundation,  the  mental  capital  with  which  we  must  constantly 
operate,  is  a  task  to  be  accomplished  only  through  unremitting 
exertion. 2 

Others  also  have  defined  plainly  the  new  position.  Speaking 
of  the  warrant  of  the  pedagogical  movement,  Karl  Fricke 
says: 

The  fact  was  emphasized,  and  rightly,  that  the  teacher's  proper 
task  is  not  to  conduct  highly  specialized  investigation,  but  rather  to 
make  the  results  of  scholarship  available  for  the  purposes  of  general 
culture;  that  the  creative  feature  in  the  work  of  instruction  is  to  be 
found  above  all  in  the  choice  of  material  from  the  broad  fields  of 
knowledge  and  in  the  selection  of  the  correct  method  of  presenting  it.3 

So  too  August  Baumeister,  dealing  with  the  charge  that  the 
new  pedagogue  is  a  "  Method-monger",  bluntly  says: 

We  are  most  willing  for  the  time-being  to  accept  this  slur,  if  such 
it  be,  for  the  teacher  as  such  has  neither  the  professional  nor  moral 
obligation  to  make  independent  contributions  to  scientific  scholar- 
ship. This  declaration  should  be  made  for  once  with  the  utmost 
frankness,  as  a  protest  against  demands  that  have  often  worked 

1  Speck,  Wissenschaftliche  Fortbildung,  p.  3.  2  Ibid.,  p.  5. 

8  Fricke,  Geschichtlicke  Entwicklung,  p.  24. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  8 1 

injury  to  our  secondary  schools,  ever  since  Johannes  Schulze  began 
to  attach  such  weight  to  literary  activity  in  selecting  his  directors. 
The  majority  of  practical  teachers,  if  they  take  their  business  of 
education  seriously,  have  not  much  time  left  in  which  to  carry  on 
extensive  side-enterprises.1 

What  all  these  men  tacitly  recognize  as  the  urgent  need  of 
the  modern  school,  is  the  single-hearted  teacher,  the  man 
with  undivided  purpose,  who  is  trained  for  his  task  as  it  is, 
and  finds  in  the  thing  he  does  that  for  which  he  was  trained, 
and  not  a  totally  different  thing.  Just  here  each  earlier 
type  of  schoolmaster  made  shipwreck.  Personal  worth,  high 
ideals,  and  industrious  application  were  not  lacking,  but  these 
and  the  actual  work  of  teaching  boys  were  somehow  never 
really  welded  into  a  consistent,  forceful  combination.  The 
great  boon  which  the  last  quarter  century  has  brought  to  the 
teacher,  lies  in  the  fact  that  so  many  new  avenues  have  been 
opened  between  himself  and  his  pupils.  He  has  begun  to 
find  reliable  means  for  making  a  determining  contact,  and  it 
is  scarcely  probable  that  he  will  fail  to  follow  the  discovery 
into  its  ever  enlarging  possibilities.  A  scientific  student, 
indeed,  he  must  always  remain,  and  science  he  must  seek  to 
advance;  but  for  him  science  must,  henceforth,  mean  the 
science  of  his  work,  and  not  remote  studies  that  divide 
his  purpose  and  bear  no  fruit  for  his  main  task  save  dis- 
content. 

Thus,  as  the  master  of  Wolf's  day  parted  with  the  clergy, 
and  took  iiri_Jbds-_jiew-~and . iadepjendent  profession  with 
enthusiasm  and,  perhaps,  a  bit  of  scorn  for  his  former  col- 
league, so  today  the  Oberlehrer  seems  called  to  break  off 
connection,  inwardly  as  well  as  outwardly,  with  the  univer- 
sity  professor,  and  to  enter  upon  his  own  peculiar  enterprise. 
That  he  can  do  this  with  a  sense  of  relief  is  clear;  that  he  has 
essentially  the  greater  and  more  vital  task  to  perform  will 

1  Baumeister,  Handbuch  der  Erziehungslehre,  i,  Int.  xli. 


82  THE  OBERLEHRER 

perhaps,  become  clearer  as  the  task  itself  becomes  better 
understood.  To  restore  the  old  progression  from  a  school 
position  to  a  university  chair,  (now  reduced  to  an  average 
of  one  per  year) l  would  be  disastrous.  It  would  cost  the 
teaching  class  its  best  minds  and  would  prevent  the  develop- 
ment of  a  closed  profession.  Even  if  desirable,  however,  it 
would  be  practically  impossible  of  accomplishment,  except 
in  the  department  of  education  itself.  The  two  professions 
have  become  fully  differentiated  since  the  time  when, 
according  to  Wolf,  the  sum  and  substance  of  the  scholar's 
concern  was  the  science  of  antiquity. 

The  outward  marks  of  this  differentiation  are  so  con- 
spicuous and  important  that  a  statement  of  their  nature 
may  well  be  added  here.  When  a  new  conception  of  educa- 
tion  made  a  fresh  pedagogical  standpoint  imperative,  the_ 
only  effective  system  available  proved  to  be  that  devised  by 
Herbart  in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  and  already  rooted 
firmly  in  the  Volksschule.  Experiments_made_by  Ziller  at 
Leipzig,  Stoy  at  Jena,  and  especially  by  Frick  at  Halle,2 
prove3  so  satisfactory  that  in  1890,  the  Prussian  Ministry  of 
Education  introduced  a  Seminarjahr  in  theoretical  and 
practical  pedagogy,  for  all  candidates  for  positions  in  the 
higher  schools.3  In  1909  centres  for  this  purpose  numbered 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five.4  The  Seminarjahr  and  Pro- 
bejahr  together  constitute  a  training  school  of  respectable 
proportions.  They  are  spent  at  different  institutions,  but 
always  in  connection  with  a  full-sized  school,  where  abundant 
opportunity  is  given  for  observing  good  work  in  all  grades. 
According  to  the  revised  regulations  of  1908,  the  purpose  is  as 
follows: 

1  Oberle-Kosters,  Taschenbuch,  p.  243. 

*  Fries,  Wiss.  und  prakt.  Vorbildung,  pp.  70  ff.     Ziegler,  op.  cit.,  pp.  382  ff. 

3  Beier,  Hoheren  Schulen,  p.  540. 

4  Fries,  op.  oil.,  p.  74. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  83 

During  the  Seminar jahr  the  candidates  are  to  be  made  familiar 
with  the  theory  of  education  and  instruction  in  its  application  to  the 
secondary  schools  and  with  the  methods  of  the  individual  subjects  of 
instruction;  they  are  also  to  be  introduced  to  the  practical  work  of 
the  teacher  and  educator.  The  Probejahr  serves  primarily  as  a 
test  of  the  teaching  skill  won  during  the  Seminar  jahr.1 

The  procedure  consists  of  a  semi-weekly  conference  for  the 
candidates,  to  which  all  teachers  also  have  access.  This 
is  conducted  by  the  director  of  the  school  or  by  a  teacher 
delegated  for  the  purpose,  and  deals  with  historical  and  theo- 
retical pedagogy  in  general_as  well  as  in  separate  branches, 
with  the  historv_and  organization  of  the  schools,  and  with  the 
problems  and  principles  of  TnftTiqffement,  of  school  discipline 
and  hygiene.  Finally,  on  the  basis  of  much  observation  and[ 
practice- teaching,  there  is  provision  for  a  thorough  criticism 
of  the  candidate's  individual  work  to  put  him  so  far  as  DOS- 

,  „    i     ,   ..    ,   i,    ,       in  nr-  "      ——•••••  '^•^•^•^•11  •     _. M||  „___,  -  Tan 

sible  in  possession  of  the  art  of  instructing  and  training 
yjDuthu  The  Probejahr  gives  opportunity  for  consecutive 
teaching  under  continual  inspection  and  criticism. 

The  general  opinion  seems  to  be,  that,  in  the  words  of  the 
new  regulations  of  1008.  this  plan  of  practical  training  "  has 
thoroughly  justified  itself  ".2  It  is  variously  handled,  as 
would  naturally  be  the  case  with  the  sudden  assignment  of 
the  duty  to  a  large  number  of  practical  schoolmen.  But 
it  has  brought  the  psychology  of  school-teaching  to  full 
recognition.  It  has  made  the  sense  of  the  young  teacher 
acute  for  such  a  work  as  Hunch's  Geist  des  Lehramts, 
a  book  that  is  itself  indicative  of  the  wholLv-xhanged  coib 
ception  of  education.  It  has  powerfully  cooperated  in 
shifting  the  emphasis  from  the  book  to  the  child,  and  in  thus 
revealing  fo  the  teacher  the  real  nature  of  his  profession. 
On  the  other  hand  its  results  are  but  partial  as  yet.  Very 
many  teachers  are  in  service  to  whom  the  new  point  of  view 

1  Beier,  op.  cit.,  p.  542.     Also  Fries,  op.  tit.,  p.  130. 
1  Beier,  op.  cit.,  p.  541. 


84  TEE  OBERLEHRER 

is  foreign.  Hence,  there  is  ample  ground  for  the  complaints 
of  Professor  Munch  in  a  recent  criticism,  that  the  idealism 
of  the  philologue  is  apt  to  be  of  the  wrong  kind: 

That  which  our  university  men  call  idealism,  and  which  really  is 
their  type  of  idealism,  is  reducible  mainly  to  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  truth  in  scientific  inquiry,  in  distinction  from  practical  success  in 
life.  But  with  that  other  form  of  idealism  that  manifests  itself  in 
devotion  to  man,  they  are  unfamiliar.1 

And  he  notes  other  shortcomings  which  are  equally  obvious. 
Another  expert  critic,  Ernst  Meumann,  deals  out  much  more 
vigorous  reproach: 

It  is  strikingly  noticeable  that  in  this  very  time  of  ours,  which  is 
being  so  powerfully  stirred  by  a  profound  movement  toward  scientific 
education,  no  one  stands  so  aloof  from  the  movement  as  the  Ober- 
lehrer.  In  no  field  of  education  do  we  so  often  find  the  false  con- 
clusion prevailing  that  the  teaching  profession  requires  nothing 
beyond  a  knowledge  of  the  branches  to  be  taught.  Of  the  significance 
of  a  specialized  pedagogical  training,  of  the  significance  of  the  psy- 
chology of  the  child  and  youth,  of  all  the  progress  that  observational 
and  experimental  education  has  made,  the  great  majority  of  our 
Oberlehrer,  even  today,  know  nothing.2 

Such  judgments  show  that  conversion  is  not  yet  complete; 
one  might  say  that  it  had  only  begun. 

A  further  mark  of  differentiation  appears  in  the  examina- 
tion requirements  and  in  certain  conditions  affecting  the 
training  of  the  Oberlehrer.  Following  the  tendency  already 
indicated  in  the  examination  regulations  of  1831,  the  pro- 
visions of  1866  carried  the  opportunity  for  specialization  still 
further,  at  the  same  time  treating  the  numerous  general 
subjects  with  leniency.3  Passing  over  the  regulations  of 
1887,  and  noting  those  of  1898  which  are  still  in  force,  we  see 
a  marked  development.  No  fewer  than  fifteen  independent 
subjects  appear  for  choice  in  various  combinations,  while  the 

1  Munch,  Eltern,  Lehrer  und  Schiden,  p.  64. 

2  Archiv  fiir  d.  gesammte  Psychologic,  1910,  xvii,  p.  212. 

3  Wiese,  Verordnungen  und  Gesetze,  ii,  pp.  65  ff. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  85 

general  examination  has  been  reduced  to  philosophy,  peda- 
gogy, German  literature,  and  religion.1  That  the  demands 
of  the  school  are  to  receive  consideration  appears  in  Section  8 : 
"  Both  in  the  general  and  departmental  examinations  special 
account  is  to  be  taken  of  the  requirements  of  the  secondary 
schools."  A  guarantee  for  this  appears  in  Section  2,  accord- 
ing to  which,  "  The  examining  commissions  are  to  be  com- 
posed chiefly  of  university  instructors  and  schoolmen;  the 
chairman  is  to  be  a  schoolman  ".  In  the  specifications  under 
the  special  subjects,  the  regulations  emphasize  throughout 
the  peculiar  needs  of  the  schools. 

To  satisfy  such  an  examination,  the  candidate  would  seem 
to  be  obliged  from  the  outset  to  work  along  lines  different 
from  those  which  a  prospective  Privatdozent  would  select; 
and  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  this  is  the  case.  A 
broad  and  thorough  intellectual  training  has  always  been  a 
matter  of  honor  with  the  Oberlehrer.  His  ambition  is  to 
secure  a  comprehensive  teaching  certificate;  i.  e.,  at  least 
two  subjects  for  the  full  range  of  the  nine-year  course,  besides 
the  general  subjects.  He  has  no  fixed  plan  of  studies  as  has 
the  doctor  or  lawyer,  and  the  excessive  specialization  at  the 
university  makes  his  task  long  and  laborious.  When  it 
becomes  necessary  to  take  sixteen  four-hour  lecture  courses 
in  order  to  cover  once  the  field  of  ancient  and  modern  history 
alone,  it  is  obvious  that  the  old  triennium  academicum  will 
hardly  suffice.2  As  a  matter  of  fact,  between  1895  and  1908 
the  candidates  required  an  average  of  six  and  one-half  years 
to  make  their  preparation,  and  came  thus  to  eligibility,  after 
the  Seminarjahr  and  the  Probejahr,  at  about  the  age  of 
twenty-nine.3  The  training  is  longer  than  that  of  the  judge, 
jind  more  comprehensive  than  that  of  a  future  university 
gpecialist.4  Thus  the  development  both  in  the  examination . 

1  Beier,  op.  cit.,  p.  520.  8  Oberle-Kosters,  op.  cit..  p.  82. 

1  Eulenburg,  Soziale  Lage,  p.  49.  4  Lortzing,  Gleichstellung,  p.  18. 


86  THE  OBERLEHRER 

regulations,  and  in  the  arrangement  for  the  Seminarjahr 
lias  contributed  noticeably  to  widen  the  difference  between 
the  training  of  the  Oberlehrer  and  that  of  the  university 
:  prof  essojL 

An  interesting  evidence  that  the  Oberlehrer  is  turning  his 
attention  more  and  more  to  his  proper  field,  is  found  in  the 
changed  character  of  the  so-called  "  school  reports  ".  As 
early  as  1824,  the  scheme  was  hit  upon  of  supplementing 
these  brief  annual  statements  of  personnel  and  operation  in 
each  school  with  a  scientific  essay  by  one  of  the  staff.  In- 
structions of  1826  explain  the  purpose:  "  This  is  to  oblige 
the  directors  and  Oberlehrer  to  continue  their  studies  without 
interruption,  and  particularly  to  keep  up  their  practice  in 
writing  Latin."1  By  1866,  these  disquisitions  had  become 
so  technical  that  the  schools  were  cautioned  "  to  select  a 
subject  which  shall  be  intelligible  to  the  lay-public  ".2  Made 
optional  in  1875,  they  were  still  generally  continued  as  a 
matter  of  honor.  In  1866,  a  third  of  these  were  still  dealing 
with  questions  of  classical  philology,  "  for  the  most  part  in  a 
severely  scientific  fashion  " .  In  1 908,  out  of  two  hundred  and 
seventy-two  such  productions  in  Prussia,  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  were  concerned  with  general  questions  of  peda- 
gogy, while  only  fifty-nine  had  any  relation  to  classical 
antiquity.3 

3.   Economic  and  Social  Advancement 

The  educational  readjustment  of  the  teacher  has  been 
attended  by  marked  improvement  on  the  economic  and 
social  side.  As  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  so  now  a 
genuine  social  service  expertly  rendered  has  won  its  own 
recognition,  first,  in  much  increased  public  appreciation,  and, 
secondly,  in  financial  reward.  When  the  Department  of 

1  M onatsschrifl  fur  hoh.  Schulen,  1902,  p.  402.  2  Ibid. 

3  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  1911,  No.  30,  p.  426. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  87 

Instruction  set  up  a  definite  standard  of  remuneration  for  the 
Oberlehrer,  and  suggested  ranking  him  with  the  judge,  the  pro- 
posal was  accompanied  by  a  qualification  to  the  effect  that 
"  this  class  of  teachers  must  first  mature  'V  Whether  at 
the  time  this  was  serious  criticism  or  a  mere  excuse  for  delay, 
it  was  a  perfectly  justifiable  demand.  It  is  this  "  ripening  " 
that  the  past  half-century  has  brought,  as  seen  in  the  pre- 
ceding pages,  and  the  Oberlghrer  of  today^  as^_type^stands 
fojr  an  exceedingly  high  degree  of  efficiency. 

Thus  in  its  practical  working-out  the  upward  effort  on  the 
part  of  the  Oberlehrer  has  taken  the  form  of  a  struggle  for 
economic  equality  with  the  Richter,  or  judges  of  the  lower 
courts.  Owing  to  the  peculiar  structure  of  the  German 
state,  the  classes  of  public  servants  are  numerous,  and  their 
rank,  rights,  titles,  and  privileges  are  elaborated  with  great 
nicety.  The  nine  grades  in  the  civil  service  make  a  fairly 
accurate  basis  for  measurement  of  public  importance,  and 
class  differences  are  minutely  scrutinized.  Now  it  happens 
that  of  all  state  officials,  the  judges  in  courts  of  the  first  in- 
stance are  most  closely  comparable  to  the  Oberlehrer.  They 
are  members  of  a  court  organized  on  the  collegiate  principle, 
they  have  approximately  the  same  training  as  the  Ober- 
lehrer, and  are  not  far  from  the  latter  in  numbers.2  They 
are  recruited,  in  general,  from  high-class  families,  often  from 
those  in  which  the  judicial  tradition  has  been  long  continued 
from  father  to  son;  they  usually  have  independent  wealth, 
and  enjoy  great  social  respect.  This  is  but  the  inheritance  of 
the  established  tradition  of  centuries.  The  Oberlehrer,  on 
the  other  hand,  has  risen  from  the  masses,  has  usually  been 
the  beneficiary  of  university  scholarships,  and  has  been 
obliged,  while  waiting  for  his  appointment,  to  eke  out  a 
scanty  living  in  private  tutoring  or  some  similar  occupation. 

1  Fricke,  Gesch,  Entwick..  p.  22. 

2  Hue  de  Grais,  Verfassung  u.  Verwaltung,  pp.  267,  274. 


88  THE  OBERLEHRER 

His  sons,  if  ambitious,  have  shunned  their  father's  career, 
for  it  has  been  felt  to  be  the  most  recent  and  questionable 
aspirant  to  public  esteem.  This,  too,  is  but  the  inheritance 
of  centuries  as  we  have  seen.  In  matching  himself  with  the 
judge,  therefore,  the  Oberlehrer  had  everything  to  gain  and 
nothing  to  lose;  as  a  tool  with  which  to  aid  his  designs 
this  comparison  was  in  every  way  fortunate.  ThaJLhe^the 
humble  schoolmaster.,  finally  made  good  his  claim  as  peer 
of  his  distinguished  competitor,  was  due,  however,  tothg 
inherent  dynamic  character  of  the  thing  he  represented 
rather  than  to  any  f ortunes_of  the  struggle.  Compared  with 
the  static  function  of  the  judge  this  claim  of  the  highly 
trained  and  skillful  teacher  at  once  disclosed  the  extent  to 
which  '•  modern  society  has  shifted  its  perspective.  The 
issue  was  plainly  drawn.  Given  the  same  amount  of  formal 
preparation  and  the  same  conditions  of  life  in  the  case  of 
each  class  of  men,  the  question  stood  simply:  Does  the  State 
consider  the  training  of  the  nation's  leaders  to  be  of  import- 
ance equal  to  that  of  maintaining  social  order  ?  A  century 
previous  the  question  would  scarcely  have  been  formulated; 
today  the  German  State  replies  with  an  emphatic  Yes. 

The  proposition  for  equal  rating  was  first  made  in  1845, 
on  the  initiative  of  the  ministry,  and  in  the  budget  of  1872 
the  plan  was  actually  carried  out  for  a  time,  again  on  govern- 
ment initiative  and  without  agitation  on  the  part  of  the 
teachers.1  This  was  for  teachers  in  the  royal  schools  only, 
and  was  not  fully  realized  in  practice,  but  it  clearly  showed 
the  intent.  In  1879  the  salary  of  the  judges  was  advanced 
by  $375,  and  then  it  was  that  the  struggle  first  seriously 
began.  As  a  mere  fight  for  salary,  the  matter  is  insignifi- 
cant; in  the  course  of  the  fitful  increases  on  either  side,  the 
actual  difference  was  reduced  at  one  time  to  somewhat  over 
one  hundred  dollars.2  But  it  soon  became  apparent  that  the 

1  Lortzing,  op.  cit.,  pp.  6,  15.  2  Ibid.,  p.  8. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  89 

social  factor  was  the  critical  one.  Opposition  on  the  part 
of  the  Prussian  House  of  Lords,  of  the  Minister  of  Finance, 
v.  Miquel,  and  even  the  luke-warm  attitude  of  certain  of  the 
ministers  of  education,  themselves  men  of  legal  training, 
received  expression  in  the  policy  announced  by  the  ministerial 
director  of  secondary  education  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives on  March  10,  1900: 

The  amount  of  salary  depends  frequently  upon  considerations  of 
historical  development.  When  a  class  of  men  receiving  a  small 
salary  gradually  rises  in  importance,  it  still  receives  less  than  another 
that  was  previously  paid  more;  that  is  an  entirely  natural  evolution.1 

This  was  the  whole  of  the  conservative  objection,  and  its 
invidious  social  basis  made  the  contest  a  bitter  one.  To  be 
sure,  it  was  claimed  besides,  that  the  Oberlehrer  increased 
his  salary  through  private  tutoring  and  boarding  students 
at  his  home,  —  a  common  practice  among  teachers  hi  Ger- 
many; that  he  worked  but  twenty-four  hours  per  week, 
and  had  a  long  vacation;  but  such  objections  came  from  the 
common  philistine. 

The  Oberlehrer,  on  the  other  hand,  to  all  of  whom  this 
issue  had  become  "  the  all-absorbing  and  vital  question  of 
our  profession  "  as  Director  Mertens  put  it,2  took  vigorous 
action.      In   1880,  the  first  state  conference  of  Prussian 
Oberlehrer  was  held,  and  the  new  organization  made  the 
problem  of  equal  pay  its  chief  business.     Under  its  super- 
vision or  with  its  encouragement,  an  extensive  campai 
literature  appeared,  the  moving  spirit  in  which,  Heinric 
Schroders,  so  aroused  the  public  that  the  teachers  of  Prussi 
made  him  a  gift  of  $25,000  in  token  of  their  gratitude.     Th 
common  purpose  of  these  publications  was  to  show  that  th 
professional  qualifications,  the  conditions  of  service,  and  the 
social  obligations  of  the  Oberlehrer  were  fully  equal  to  thos< 
of  the  Richter;  that  the  service  of  the  Gymnasien  to  society 

1  Ibid.,  p.  12.  f  Berkht,  29.  ausser.  Deleg.-Konferenz, 


90  THE  OBERLEHRER 

was  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  law  court;  and  that,  primarily 
for  the  sake  of  these  schools,  an  equal  rating  was  necessary 
to  secure  the  ablest  brains  for  the  profession  and  to  give  the 
prestige  necessary  for  the  Oberlehrer  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties. 

These  are  familiar  arguments  even  in  America,  but  in 
Prussia  they  are  convincing.  Behind  them  gathered  a 
steadily  increasing  weight  of  public  opinion.  In  1890,  at 
the  close  of  the  school  conference  already  referred  to,  the 
Kaiser,  with  warm  appreciation  and  assurances,  added : 

There  remains  a  point  to  be  mentioned  which  is  close  to  my  heart. 
I  cannot  fail  to  recognize  that  in  the  execution  of  the  new  plans  for 
reform  a  considerable  increase  must  be  made  in  the  requirements  laid 
upon  the  teaching  force  as  a  whole.  I  rely,  however,  upon  its  sense 
of  duty  as  upon  its  patriotism,  and  believe  that  it  will  give  itself  with 
fidelity  and  devotion  to  the  new  tasks.  On  the  other  hand,  I  regard 
it  as  indispensable  that  the  material  conditions  of  the  teaching  class, 
as  expressed  in  its  rank  and  salary  regulations,  should  undergo  a 
corresponding  revision.  I  desire  that  especial  attention  be  given  to 
this  matter,  and  that  I  be  kept  informed  as  to  the  progress  made.1 

Shortly  afterwards  a  voice  was  heard  which  at  that  time  had 
still  more  general  access  to  the  hearts  of  the  people  than  had 
the  Kaiser's.  Bismarck  had  already  shown  his  judgment  of 
values  by  dedicating  the  sum  of  $300,000  that  came  as  a 
birthday  gift  from  the  people  on  his  seventieth  anniversary 
to  the  training  of  Oberlehrer,  especially  in  the  form  of  travel- 
endowments.2  Ten  years  later,  in  1895,  the  Oberlehrer 
of  Prussia  made  a  general  pilgrimage  to  Friedrichsruh,  in 
honor  of  the  aged  hero,  and  received  fresh  evidences  of  his 
regard.  He  said,  on  this  occasion: 

Had  I  not  found  the  preparatory  work  of  the  secondary  teacher 
already  accomplished  in  our  nation,  I  have  no  confidence  that  my 
efforts,  or  those  in  which  I  have  shared,  would  have  succeeded  to 
such  a  degree  as  they  have.  Your  task  has  been  to  foster  those 

1  V erhandlungen  iiber  Fragen  d.  hoheren  Unterrichts,  p.  773. 

2  Beier,  op.  tit.,  p.  626. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  91 

imponderable  values  the  absence  of  which  in  the  educated  minority 
of  our  people  would  have  made  the  success  we  have  had  impossible. 

Success  in  the  national  development  of  any  country  depends 
chiefly  upon  the  educated  minority  which  that  country  possesses. 
An  embitterment  of  the  dependent  masses  can  produce  an  acute 
sickness  for  which  we  have  remedies;  an  embitterment  of  the  edu- 
cated minority  produces  a  chronic  illness  difficult  to  diagnose  and 
difficult  to  heal.  Therefore  I  place  the  main  emphasis  upon  the 
education  and  disposition  of  the  educated  classes  in  any  country. 
We,  in  Germany,  have  no  use,  in  government  circles,  for  any  who 
have  not  been  through  your  hands.1 

In  regard  to  social  and  financial  conditions,  he  had  the 
following  to  say: 

You  are  in  large  measure  justified  in  your  dissatisfaction  with 
your  social  and  material  status.  A  false  relation  exists  between  the 
significance  which  the  secondary  teacher  possesses  for  our  future  and 
the  appreciation  which  he  has  hitherto  received.  The  power  that 
resides  in  the  influence  which  the  secondary  school  wields  over  the 
educated  classes,  and  the  importance  of  the  educated  classes  for  the 
prosperity  of  a  nation  are  considerably  underestimated  in  these  days, 
and  I  trust  that  in  this  respect  a  change  for  the  better  will  gradually 
ensue.  For  my  part,  I  consider  this  necessary,  if  we  are  to  confirm 
and  make  permanent  the  successses  that  we  have  won  with  the  aid  of 
the  princes  and  of  the  army.2 

And  an  address  made  somewhat  later  to  the  Oberlehrer  of 
Saxony,  stated  his  conviction  of  their  all-important  service 
still  more  broadly: 

For  us  Germans  there  can  never  be  any  doubt  that  the  bond 
which  unites  us  is  no  mere  institution  of  external  police  power;  it  is 
rather  the  inseparable  and  irresistible  community  of  interests  in 
scientific  scholarship,  in  art,  and  in  poetry  that  has  grown  up  between 
all  German  peoples.  The  real  medium  for  all  this  is  not  the  minister 
of  state,  but  the  instructor  of  the  growing  youth,  the  secondary 
teacher.  When  the  funds  from  which  I  established  the  Schonhausen 
Foundation  were  placed  at  my  disposal,  I  asked  myself,  "  To  what 
purpose  shall  I  apply  this  million  marks  ?  "  And  I  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  secondary  teacher  is  the  most  important  factor  in 
the  patriotic  education  of  the  rising  generations.3 

1  Grosse,  op.  cit.,  p.  58.  2  Ibid.,  p.  59. 

3  Lortzing,  GleichsteUung,  p.  25. 


92  THE  OBERLEHRER 

The  utterances  of  this  powerful  ally  were  followed  soon  after 
by  the  demands  of  the  school  conference  of  1900,  the  same 
in  which  the  equality  of  the  different  school-forms  was  finally 
won.  In  these  demands  the  equality  with  the  judges  was 
expressly  justified: 

Care  must  be  taken  that  the  salary  arrangements  of  the  secondary 
teacher  be  made  as  nearly  as  possible  the  same  as  those  of  the  judge, 
even  though  a  mere  mechanical  equality  in  this  respect  seems  un- 
necessary; there  exist  no  adequate  reasons  for  an  essential  difference 
in  the  apportionment  of  the  two  sets  of  salaries.1 

With  such  support  as  this  for  their  own  propaganda,  the 
Oberlehrer  gradually  won  the  Landtag  over  to  their  cause, 
and  in  1909  the  state  budget  brought  the  long  desired  result.2 
To  be  sure,  here  again,  as  in  1872,  the  change  affected  only 
the  state-supported  institutions.  But  conditions  were 
different  now.  Many  cities  had  already  outdone  the  state 
in  their  local  provisions  for  their  teachers,  and,  with  the 
principle  clearly  established,  a  uniform  law  for  all  schools 
seems  to  be  only  a  matter  of  time.  The  relief  and  satisfac- 
tion with  which  the  success  was  welcomed  are  seen  in  the 
words  of  Rudolf  Grosse,  the  editor  of  the  association's  periodi- 
cal, the  Korrespondenz-Blatt: 

Mighty,  indeed,  is  the  achievement;  above  all,  our  equality  with 
the  other  professions  —  it  is  at  last  attained,  and  thereby  a  goal  is 
won  for  which,  through  many  decades,  the  secondary  teacher  has 
fought  and  struggled,  not  merely  in  his  own  interests,  but  also  in  the 
interests  of  the  youth  intrusted  to  him.  It  will  be  acknowledged 
however,  on  all  sides,  and  that  most  gladly  and  gratefully,  that  this 
result  would  never  have  been  possible  without  the  energetic  support 
of  a  Paulsen,  of  an  Althoff,  and  chief  of  all,  of  His  Majesty,  the 
Emperor. 

Thus  at  last  the  time  has  come  when  the  secondary  teacher  can 
devote  himself  more  fully  than  was  hitherto  possible,  to  his  develop- 
ment in  educational  and  intellectual  directions.3 

1  Ibid.,  p.  10 


1  Ibid.,  p.  io. 

2  Protokoll  d.  32.  Ddegierten-Konferenz. 

3  Grosse,  op.  cit.,  p.  78. 


THE  PROFESSIONAL  OBERLEHRER  93 

There  is  an  ancient  couplet  which  runs: 

"Dat  Galenus  opes,  dat  Justinianus  honores 
Sed  genus  et  species  cogitur  ire  pedes." 

(Though  Galen  may  give  wealth,  and  Justin  rank  bestow, 
The  master  of  genus  and  species  must  humbly  plod  and  slow.) 

The  date  when  such  a  judgment  becomes  no  longer  appro- 
priate may  justly  mark  an  epoch.  In  the  slowly  changing 
estimate  of  society  the  teacher  has  outgrown  his  minority, 
and  by  sheer  force  of  the  efficiency  of  his  work  has  con- 
quered a  place  second  to  that  of  no  other  profession.  Some 
traces  of  his  youthful  awkwardness  will,  no  doubt,  long 
cling  to  him,  but  every  indication  points  to  his  rapid  modern- 
ization. So 

The  humanist  of  the  Reformation  period  is  followed  by  the  master 
of  the  eighteenth  century  with  braided  wig,  breeches,  and  black  stock- 
ings. To  him  succeeds  the  scholarly  new-humanist,  a  recluse  from 
the  world,  but  profoundly  convinced  of  his  own  worth.  And  to  close 
the  procession  there  appears  the  "  smart  "  Oberlehrer  of  to-day  whose 
card  bears  the  inscription  "  Lieutenant  of  the  Reserve  ".l 

And  Lehmann  notes  the  same  evolution: 

There  we  see  the  fashionable  dandy  who  conies  to  school  with 
patent-leather  boots  and  stylish  cravat.  There  appears  the  brusque 
and  haughty  "  Officer  of  the  Reserve  "  who  carries  over  his  military 
ideal  of  "  smartness  "  into  his  classroom.  There,  finally,  comes  the 
"  correct  official  "  who  disposes  of  his  tasks  as  impersonally  as  possible, 
and  does  his  best  to  shield  his  dignity  behind  a  genteel  aloofness.2 

1  Ebner,  op.  cit.,  p.  8. 

2  Lehmann,  Erziehung  und  Erzieher,  p.  152. 


.  CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  AND  ITS  PRO- 
FESSIONAL SIGNIFICANCE 

i.   Features  of  Prussian  School  Organization  that  Promote 

Solidarity 

THE  basic  features  of  Prussian  school  organization  from  the 
point  of  view  here  selected,  have  already  been  introduced  in 
Chapter  II,  but  for  the  sake  of  a  connected  impression  they 
may  be  recalled  briefly,  and  set  in  relation  to  certain  other 
minor  characteristics  which  contribute  to  the  same  end. 

The  fundamental  element  in  which  is  rooted  the  identity 
of  interests  of  one  teacher  with  another  is  the  identity  of 
training  culminating  in  the  state  examination  established  in 
1810.  It  is  an  important  premise  to  this  training  that  it  rests 
in  turn  upon  a  twelve-year  course  in  the  Gymnasium  itself  — 
an  institution  of  exceedingly  even  and  uniform  character,  in 
spite  of  the  enlarged  sense  in  which  the  term  is  now  generally 
applied.  It  is  here  that  the  future  schoolmaster  is  actually 
moulded,  just  as  is  every  educated  German,  and  herein,  too, 
lies  the  secret  of  the  splendid  intellectual  solidarity  of  the 
German  people. 

Again,  as  the  schools,  so  the  universities  throughout  the 
country  are  drawn  on  the  same  lines,  measured  by  the  same 
standards,  and  filled  with  the  same  ideals.  Moreover,  as  if 
this  were  not  enough,  it  is  the  custom  of  each  candidate,  as 
of  students  in  general,  to  attend  more  than  one  university, 
thus  compensating  in  the  end  whatever  individual  differences 
may  exist  among  these  institutions.  After  six  years  of  this 
university  training,  following  twelve  years  at  the  Gym- 
nasium, the  average  student  knows  the  intellectual  life  of  his 

94 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  95 

nation,  he  knows  the  public  that  he  as  a  teacher  is  expected 
to  serve,  and  he  has  this  knowledge  in  common  with  every 
other  prospective  secondary  school  teacher.  The  Seminar- 
jahr  and  Probejahr  serve  but  to  analyze,  theoretically  and 
practically,  the  institution  and  the  processes  with  which  the 
candidate  is  already  thoroughly  familiar.  Would  it  be 
possible  better  to  socialize  a  public  servant,  or  to  give  him 
greater  fitness  for  cooperation  with  his  colleagues  in  dealing 
with  his  problems  ? 

The  second  point  previously  noted  was  the  part  played  by 
the  teacher  hi  the  Abiturient  examination.  This  is  not  the 
place  to  discuss  the  pedagogical  advantages  of  this  arrange- 
ment. The  fact  is  noteworthy  that  in  1902,  for  example, 
eighty-five  per  cent  of  the  Prussian  candidates  passed  the 
Abiturient,  while  of  French  boys  under  similar  circumstances, 
but  forty-five  per  cent  passed  the  state  examinations,  though 
the  standard  of  the  Abiturient  was  said  to  be  higher.1  But 
the  arrangement  does  indirectly  affect  the  teacher  consider- 
ably. Giving  the  examination  himself,  he  becomes  master 
in  his  own  house,  as  it  were.  His  interest  is  focussed  sharply, 
and  with  a  sense  of  responsibility,  upon  pedagogical  questions 
that  otherwise  would  quite  escape  him.  Lifted  above  the 
function  of  a  mere  cramming  agent  he  has  every  reason  to 
take  a  broad  view  of  amis  and  methods.  Furthermore,  the 
incessant  criticism  to  which  he  is  subjected,  chiefly  hi  these 
examinations,  tends  strongly  to  hold  him  to  the  certain 
ground  of  tested  and  approved  ideas. 

The  third  point  already  mentioned  was  the  standardization 
of  the  schools.  In  its  importance  for  the  present  point  of 
view,  this  factor  ranks  easily  next  to  the  first.  The  work  of 
the  school  is  fixed  by  the  general  plan  of  studies,  this  going 
so  far  in  1891  as  to  assign  the  reading  to  be  done  hi  the  various 
years  of  the  course.  Even  between  schools  of  different 

1  Henri  Bornecque,  reviewed  in  Monatsschrift  fur  hoh.  Schulen,  iii,  p.  37. 


90  THE  OBERLEHRER 

forms,  the  differences  are  a  matter  rather  of  distribution  of 
emphasis  than  of  subject  matter  itself.  This  being  the  case, 
it  is  obvious  that  any  teacher  understands  in  an  adequate 
manner  the  problems  of  each  of  his  colleagues  throughout 
the  country. 

Besides  these,  a  number  of  contributing  factors  deserve 
comment;  first,  relations  outside  the  school.  The  organiza- 
tion is  so  planned  that  the  provincial  school  authority,  the 
so-called  Promnzialschulkollegium,  which  is  the  immediate 
superior  of  each  individual  teaching  staff,  is  made  up,  with 
the  exception  of  the  chairman,  of  men  appointed  from  among 
the  directors  of  schools,  these  in  turn  having  been  promoted 
at  the  average  age  of  forty-four  from  the  ranks  of  the  Ober- 
lehrer. When  vacancies  occur  among  the  score  or  so  of 
ministerial  advisers,  the  place  is  rilled  from  among  the  most 
prominent  Schulraten;  i.  e.  members  of  the  Promnzialschulkol- 
legien.  The  Minister  of  Education  himself  is  a  man  with 
legal  training  and  not  a  schoolman.  Thus  the  chain  of 
promotion  is  essentially  complete,  though  the  opportunities 
are  few,1  and  the  experience  and  traditions  of  service  are 
maintained  in  a  compact  and  continuous  form.  A  good 
evidence  of  the  community  of  feeling  existing  through  all 
grades  of  the  profession  is  the  fact  that  the  state  association 
of  Oberlehrer  is  active  in  promoting  the  interests  of  their 
superior  officers  in  respect  to  rank  and  salary.2 

The  element  of  similar  salary,  pension  advantages,  and 
family  insurance,  as  a  common  bond,  is  everywhere  present 
in  Prussia,  though  these  items  are  not  identical  on  account 
of  the  division  into  state  and  city  institutions.  But  such 
discrepancies  as  exist  outside  of  Prussia,  in  Bremen,  for 
example,  where  in  1911,  the  Oberlehrer  was  receiving  53,400 

1  Of  the  Oberlehrer,  one  out  of  twelve;  of  the  judges,  one  out  of  five  receives 
promotion.  Eulenburg,  op.  cit.,  p.  66. 

8  Bericht  d.  Berliner  Gym.  Lehrer-Vereins,  1910-1911,  p.  73. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  97 

marks  less  than  the  judges  for  a  twenty-seven  year  service, 
are  felt  to  be  intolerable.1 

Secondly,  within  the  school  certain  conditions  maintain 
that  are  important  for  their  effect  in  making  the  ground  of 
common  interests  as  broad  as  possible.  Foremost  of  these 
is  the  fact  that  jiH  teachers  are  essentially  of  one  grade.  To 
be  sure,  there  is  the  Probandus,  or  candidate  on  probation, 
the  Hilfslehrer,  or  part-tune  instructor,  the  Oberlehrer,  or 
regular  appointee,  and  the  Professor,  or  senior  Oberlehrer, 
but  it  is  a  progressive,  not  a  stationary  gradation,  and  the 
average  instructor  can  scarcely  fail  to  advance  from  one 
level  to  the  next.  This  arrangement  is  the  result  of  experi- 
ence won  through  experiment.  In  1866  and  after,  the 
examination  certificates  were  issued  in  three  grades,  qualify- 
ing the  holder  to  instruct  in  the  lower,  middle,  or  upper  third 
of  the  nine-year  course.2  But  the  introduction,  in  this 
manner,  of  a  large  number  of  incapable  teachers  quickly 
proved  disastrous,  and  the  lowest  grade  was  abandoned  in 
1887,  leaving  the  two  above  as  before.3  Even  this  proved 
unsatisfactory,  and  in  1898,  the  old  conditions  of  1810  and 
1831  were  restored  with  certain  modifications.  Today,  be- 
sides the  general  examination,  the  candidate  must  satisfy  the 
requirements  in  two  subjects  for  the  entire  nine-year  course, 
or  in  one  subject  for  the  entire  course  and  in  two  for  the 
partial  or  six-year  course.4  The  title  is  the  same  for  all 
teachers,  though  differences  of  excellence  are  noted  in  the 
certificates. 

What  this  arrangement  signifies  appears  most  clearly 
from  comparison  with  a  system  where  the  opposite  conditions 
prevail.  The  French  lycee,  for  example,  operates  with  a 
staff  consisting  of  at  least  four  clearly  distinguished  grades 

1  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  Jan.  18,  1911,  p.  43. 

2  Wiese,  Verordnungen  und  Gesetze,  ii,  pp.  65  ff. 

*  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  gdehrten  Unterrichts,  ii,  p.  622. 
4  Beier,  op.  cit.,  p.  533. 


98  THE  OBERLEHRER 

of  men  —  agreges,  professeurs,  preparateurs,  and  repetiteurs. 
All  of  these  are  directly  concerned  in  instruction,  yet  the 
degree  of  training  is  different  in  each  case,  and  progress 
from  one  class  to  another  depends  upon  examinations  which, 
under  prevailing  conditions,  are  well-nigh  prohibitive.1  It 
is  almost  inconceivable  that  such  a  heterogeneous  group 
should  consult  willingly  and  profitably  together  on  questions 
affecting  the  pupils,  to  say  nothing  of  affairs  common  to 
themselves  as  teachers.  And  in  fact  such  teachers'  meetings 
as  are  held  appear  from  inquiries  made  by  the  writer  in 
several  lycees,  to  be  perfunctory  and  ineffective.  One 
appreciates  the  more,  therefore,  by  contrast,  the  complete 
unity  of  thought,  feeling,  and  interest  that  pervades  the 
German  Lehrerkollegium  —  a  great,  scarcely  realized  asset 
in  German  education. 

Another  feature  well  calculated  to  develop  solidarity  in 
the  teaching  staff  appears  in  the  provision  that  a  man  may 
not  confine  himself  to  one  subject  or  to  one  year  in  the  course. 
To  this  effect  the  first  paragraph  of  the  new  service  regula- 
tions stipulates  as  follows: 

No  teacher  possesses  a  right  to  a  particular  kind  of  instruction; 
hence  length  of  service  constitutes  no  valid  claim  to  instruct  in  the 
upper  classes.  It  is  generally  desirable  that  a  teacher  should  accom- 
pany his  pupils  through  several  classes,  and  that  in  every  class  the 
instruction  in  several  branches  should  rest  in  the  same  hands.  So 
far  as  possible,  the  older  teachers  must  not  be  allowed  to  teach  for 
many  years  exclusively  in  the  upper  classes,  or  the  younger  teachers 
exclusively  in  the  lower  classes.2 

The  development  of  this  idea  is  of  interest.  Previous  to 
the  eighteenth  century,  the  rigid  class  system  was  the  rule. 
Each  teacher  was  sole  master  in  his  own  class,  and  had  no 
concern  for  those  above  or  below  him,  except  in  view  of 
the  tuition  which  he  might  collect  from  his  pupils  for  him- 

1  Cf.  Farrington,  French  Secondary  Schools,  pp.  108  ff. 

2  Dienstanweisung,  1910,  p.  6. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  99 

self.  The  obviously  appropriate  policy  here  was  to  get  the 
boy  as  soon  as  possible  from  the  class  below,  and  pass  him 
on  at  the  latest  moment  to  the  class  next  higher.  This  evil 
could  lead,  at  times,  to  the  actual  disintegration  of  the 
institution  into  a  collection  of  almost  independent  schools.1 
But  when  Latin  ceased  to  be  the  only  subject  studied,  and 
the  new  studies  brought  unequal  grading,  the  departmental 
plan  was  at  once  introduced;  first,  at  Halle  by  Francke, 
and  thence  adopted  everywhere.  The  new  arrangement  had 
the  advantage  of  being  adaptable  to  the  individual  pupil,  and 
gave  opportunity  to  the  teacher  for  concentration  of  atten- 
tion. It  was  abandoned,  however,  for  the  class  system  again 
in  1820,  when  Schulze's  leveling  rod  was  applied,  though  this 
reversion  affected  the  pupil  chiefly.  Thus  today  the  teacher 
retains  the  advantage  of  both  systems,  meeting  one  class 
with  sufficient  frequency  to  establish  personal  relations,  but 
passing  from  year  to  year  of  the  nine-year  course  with  suffi- 
cient regularity  to  keep  him  awake  to  the  problems  and 
conditions  throughout  the  entire  field. 

Other  details  of  school  management  play  into  the  same 
result.  The  "  General  Principles  "  of  the  service  regulations 
contain  an  interesting  caution: 

It  is  expected  that  the  director,  even  in  official  relations  with 
teachers,  will  not  unnecessarily  emphasize  the  fact  of  his  precedence.2 

He  is  but  primus  inter  pares,  and  the  members  of  the  Kol- 
legium  do  not  allow  him  to  ignore  or  forget  the  fact.  Their 
monthly  conference  is  especially  intrusted  with  cases  of 
discipline,  with  the  granting  of  prizes  and  scholarships,  the 
remission  of  tuition,  and  the  purchase  of  books  and  appara- 
tus. It  deals  also  with  the  establishment  and  amendment  of 
rules  of  discipline  as  well  as  the  preparation  of  proposals  to 
the  Provinzialschulkollegium  for  modifications  in  the  plan 

1  Paulsen,  Geschichte  des  Gelehrien  Unterrichts,  i,  p.  474. 

2  Dienstanweisung,  1910,  p.  5. 


100  THE  OBERLEHRER 

of  instruction  or  organization.  The  conference  of  all  the 
teachers  giving  instruction  to  any  one  class,  determines 
promotions,  class  reports,  and  minor  penalties.  The  con- 
ference of  teachers  in  any  one  subject  settles  questions  of 
method,  prepares  or  revises  special  teaching  syllabi,  and 
makes  proposals  for  new  text  books.1 

The  purpose  of  the  teachers'  conferences  is  to  insure  the  united 
cooperation  of  the  members  of  the  teaching  staff  through  joint  de- 
liberation over  problems  of  training  and  instruction,  both  general  and 
special,  and  through  discussion  of  pupils  and  of  the  important  occur- 
rences in  school  life.2 

This  is  the  keynote  of  the  Instructions  throughout;  it 
appears  further  as  follows: 

For  the  sake  of  promoting  unity  in  instruction  it  is  recommended 
that  the  teachers,  particularly  those  who  give  instruction  in  the 
same  grade,  visit  one  another's  classes. 

The  teaching  staff  can  do  justice  to  its  difficult  task  only  when  its 
members  cooperate  in  the  spirit  of  unity,  whatever  may  be  the  in- 
dependence allowed  to  the  individual.  To  awaken  and  maintain 
this  conception  in  the  entire  staff  is  one  of  the  supreme  duties  of  the 
director.  By  linking  together  all  the  masters  into  one  whole,  and 
by  allowing,  at  the  same  time,  that  everyone  have  liberty  to  do  his 
best  in  his  own  way,  he  will  strengthen  in  them  the  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility and  the  joy  in  seeing  the  common  undertaking  thrive.3 

Such  injunctions  are  familiar  enough  in  American  school 
counsels.  The  point  of  difference  rests  in  the  fact  that  in 
the  German  institution  they  can  be  fulfilled  and  are  fulfilled 
to  a  great  extent  by  virtue  of  the  uniform  training  and 
outlook  which  may  always  be  assumed  in  every  teacher. 

There  can  be  no  question  that  all  the  above  noted  condi- 
tions under  which  the  Oberlehrer  works  cooperate  powerfully 
to  strengthen  his  social  grip.  Whatever  his  nature,  his 
training  insures  a  strong  inclination  to  act  with  his  fellows 
and  to  find  in  such  united  effort  his  own  personal  expression. 
The  forms  which  this  collective  activity  assumes  and  the 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  12  ff.  2  Ibid.,  p.  n.  3  Ibid.,  p.  5. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER 


101 


success  with  which  it  works  will  be  the  subject  of  the  follow- 
ing divisions  of  this  chapter. 

2.   Professional  Organization 

Upon  the  basis  of  this  community  of  permanent  interests 
which  the  Oberlehrer  possess  hi  their  common  training,  com- 
mon conditions,  and  common  problems,  there  has  been 
erected  a  professional  structure  of  great  perfection.  With 
entire  truth  one  of  their  leaders  could  declare,  speaking  of  the 
advantages  of  a  centralized  school  system, 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was  only  through  this  centraliza- 
tion of  education  that  our  professional  class-consciousness  could  arise; 
and  that  the  German  Oberlehrer-class,  developed  upon  this  basis, 
assumes  now  a  rank  in  the  national  whole,  such  as  is  surely  nowhere 
else  the  case.1 

Only  the  German  elementary  teachers  can  show  a  superior 
organization.  The  Oberlehrer  is  necessarily  a  specialist  in  a 
certain  group  of  subjects,  and  shares  with  his  colleagues  only 
the  interests  which  concern  the  school  or  teaching-class  as  a 
whole.  Each  Volksschullehrer,  on  the  other  hand,  is  for  all 
purposes  the  duplicate  of  his  brother  teacher,  and  this  fact 
enriches  the  possibilities  of  his  professional  associations  to  a 
great  degree.  The  Oberlehrer  has  his  separate  professional 
organizations  for  his  special  subjects;  in  the  case  of  the 
Volksschullehrer,  each  subject  taught  in  the  school  receives 
its  due  in  his  one  central  association,  and  furnishes  but 
another  tie  to  bind  him  to  the  single,  all-embracing  organiza- 
tion. 

It  is  a  matter  of  pride  and  evidence  of  idealism  with  the 
present-day  secondary  teachers,  that  it  was  only  the  pressure 
of  necessity  that  brought  them  together  to  defend  their 
material  interests,  while  associations  for  intellectual  and 
educational  purposes  had  existed  among  them  much  earlier.2 


Speck,  Wiss.  Foribildung,  p.  13. 


1  Oberle-Kosters,  p.  142. 


102  THE  OBERLEHRER 

The  directors  of  institutions  began  to  organize  as  early  as 
1823. 1  Their  associations  were  approved  by  the  authorities, 
and  have  ever  since  furnished  opportunity  for  official  con- 
ferences which  have  been  and  are  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  Ministry  of  Instruction  in  its  work.  In  1837  was 
established  the  great  Verein  deutscher  Philologen  und  Schul- 
manner,  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  scientific  societies  that 
unite  the  workers  in  every  special  field.  But  these  were  in 
no  sense  Standesvereine;  i.  e.,  closed  organizations  of  the 
profession  on  a  social  basis.  The  Philologenverein  expressly 
refused  to  become  such  in  i834.2  Its  membership  has 
always  included  university  professors,  and  its  aim,  like  that 
of  all  the  Fachvereine,  is  purely  scientific.  With  the  struggle 
of  the  Realschule  for  recognition,  and  the  ensuing  Schul- 
krieg  of  the  eighties  and  nineties,  there  sprang  up  a  series  of 
what  might  be  termed  fighting  societies,  the  "  Realschul- 
mannerverein  ",  enlisted  for  the  Realgymnasium,  the  "  Verein 
zur  Beforderung  des  lateinlosen  hoheren  Schulwesens  "  for  the 
Oberrealschule,  the  "  Gymnasiaherein  "  for  the  Gymnasium] 
besides  these,  the  "  Einheitsschufaerein  ",  the  "  Verein  fur 
SchulreformJ'  and  others.3  It  is  difficult  at  any  time,  for 
three  Germans  to  meet  without  a  "  Verein  "  resulting,  and 
these  times  were  especially  provocative.  All  of  these  socie- 
ties, however,  were  of  a  general  nature,  that  is,  they  admitted 
all  comers,  and  had  a  temporary  purpose.  Standesvereine  in 
Prussia  arose  first  in  1872,  and  with  these  alone,  as  homogene- 
ous organizations  of  a  well-defined  class  of  teachers,  are  we 
here  concerned. 

As  noted  above,  Director  Spilleke,  the  famous  champion 
of  the  Realschule,  complained  about  1830  that  "  everyone  is 
uniting  except  the  teachers".  Why  no  general  outward 
union  of  Oberlehrer  took  place  before  187^  appears  to  be  due 

1  Rein,  Encyc.  Handbuch,  i,  p.  725.  2  Ibid.,  p.  143. 

*  Lexis,  Reform  d.  hiiherenSchulen,  pp.  18  ff. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  103 

to  several  causes.  The  chief  of  these  were  doubtless  first,  a 
strongly  developed  individualism  in  these  men  and,  second, 
the  lack  of  an  immediate  motive.  There  will  be  frequent 
occasion,  hi  this  connection,  to  quote  from  A.  Ludwig,  the 
historian  of  the  Berliner  Gymnasiallehrer  Verein  at  the  recent 
centenary  celebration.  He  says,  on  this  point, 

How  could  a  professional  class-feeling  have  arisen  among  men  so 
wholly  enveloped  in  their  intellectual  interests,  and  of  whom  so  many 
regarded  themselves  preeminently  as  scholars!  Leave  the  "  still  air 
of  delightful  studies",  toil  and  agitate  for  mere  external  goods!  — 
what  a  thought !  To  say  nothing  of  the  personal  and  intellectual  antith- 
eses which  were  necessarily  frequent  among  such  peculiar  and  self- 
willed  individuals.1 

To  this  and  to  the  actual  disparity  existing  in  pay,  title,  and 
prerogative  should  be  added  the  opposition  of  the  Gymnasium 
to  all  other  school-forms,  and  perhaps  most  decisive  of  all,  the 
repressive  attitude  of  the  authorities.  Associations  of  Volks- 
schullehrer  in  the  fifties  and  sixties  had  been  suppressed,2  and 
the  ministerial  frown  rested  long  on  all  tendencies  to  unite  on 
the  basis  of  "  interests  ".  For  years  after  the  Oberlehrer- 
ver_em_wa,s  established,  teachers  desiring  to  retain  the  good 
opinion  of  their  superiors  carefully  kept  away  from  the 
dangerous  meetings  of  their  colleagues.  But  after  1871, 
when  the  nation  shook  itself  for  its  new  career,  the  general 
release  swept  the  Oberlehrer  with  it.  There  gradually 
developed  the  present  dogma  that  each  social  class  which 
will  secure  its  rights  must  organize  and  clamor  for  them. 
For  this  the  discussions  of  1872  and  after,  gave  a  good  oppor- 
tunity. The  Oberlehrer  hi  state  schools  had  been  assigned 
equal  pay  with  the  Richter,  but  discontent  arose  when  the 
cities  failed  to  meet  the  action  of  the  state,3  and  became 
general  when  the  state  itself  failed  to  carry  out  its  proposal. 

1  Korrespondenz-Blatl,  Jan.  10,  1912,  p.  18. 

2  Rissmann,  Gesh.  d.  d.  Lehrerverein,  pp.  58,  67. 
1  Wiese,  Hoheres  Schulwesen,  iii,  p.  236. 


104  THE  OBERLEHRER 

Four  Prussian  provinces  and  Berlin  organized  in  1872  and 
1873.  The  discrimination  shown  by  advancing  the  compet- 
ing class  of  Richter  in  1879  brought  in  the  other  provinces 
before  1885.  Meanwhile,  in  1880,  the  societies  then  existing 
united  in  the  first  Delegierten-Konferenz  or  "  Conference  of 
Delegates  "  which  the  others  later  joined.1  The  structure  in 
Prussia  was  thus  completed,  and  remained  one  of  many 
similar,  independent  state  organizations  for  the  next  twenty- 
four  years.  Finally,  in  1904,  after  the  burning  questions  of 
the  Schulkrieg  had  been  settled,  and  when  all  parties  felt 
that  a  new  epoch  had  begun,  the  last  step  was  taken,  and 
^  the  Vereinsverband  akademisch-gebildeter  Lehrer  Deutschlands 
came  into  being. 

TTms_the  Oberlehrer's  rnstrumejjjLJaQth  ^  progress  and 
defense  has  been  fashioned.     It  op^ra^gs  ^through  its  meet- 
its.q^ial  Hterature^jmd  its  official  publication, 


the  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  since  1912  called  the  Deutsches 
Philologen-Blatt.  And  if  efficiency  can  be  measured  by 
inclusive  membership,  by  power  to  stimulate  activity,  by 
campaign  successes,  and  by  the  respectful  and  now,  indeed, 
cooperative  attitude  of  the  authorities,  it  must  be  called 
efficient.  Taking  the  Berliner  Philologen-Verein  (till 
recently  called  the  Gymnasiallehrerverein)  as  a  representa- 
tive unit,  one  finds  its  constitutional  purpose 

to  work  for  the  general  welfare  of  secondary  teachers,  to  discuss 
problems  of  higher  education,  and  to  foster  social  relations  among  its 
members.2 

A  member  may  be 

any  school-man  who,  by  examination,  has  earned  the  right  to  teach 
in  the  secondary  schools,  and  who  is  teaching  in  a  public  secondary 
school  in  Berlin  or  its  suburbs.3 

Former  teachers  may  also  be  members.  The  annual  fee  is 
five  marks.  Business  is  conducted  by  an  executive  com- 

1  Oberle-Kosters,  p.  145.          2  Satzungen,  i,  p.  i.  *  Ibid.,  ii,  p.  3. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  105 

mittee  consisting  of  a  chairman,  two  vice-chairmen,  and 
twelve  assistants.  An  important  feature  are  the  Ver- 
trauensmanner,  elected,  one  in  each  school,  by  the  local 
members;  they  are  pledged  to  attend  special  meetings  of 
such  agents,  and  to  do  the  business  of  the  Verein  in  the 
various  Kollegien  or  school-staffs.  Meetings  are  required 
quarterly,  but  are  usually  held  monthly,  except  in  vaca- 
tions. 

The  membership  is  overwhelmingly  representative.  Thus, 
in  Prussia  as  a  whole,  there  were,  in  1910,  9700  positions  for 
directors  and  Oberlehrer,1  and  the  Verein  numbered,  January 
i,  1911,  10,236  members,2  many  of  whom  were,  therefore, 
non-teaching  members  or  candidates.  And,  indeed,  the 
Vereine  have  many  members  among  the  Schulrate  and  even 
in  the  service  of  the  Ministry.  Moreover,  permanency  of 
tenure  in  the  schools  brings  the  same  element  into  the  Verein. 
The  reports  announce  the  celebration  of  the  thirty-year  ser- 
vice of  a  treasurer,  or  the  twenty-three-year  activity  of  a 
member  of  the  Vorstand,  or  presiding  committee.3  Such 
conditions  make  a  long-studied  and  settled  policy  possible. 
Certain  men  are  intrusted  with  certain  definite  lines  of  work 
on  which  they  become  authorities,  as  hi  the  case  of  Lortzing, 
long  the  representative  of  the  Berlin  Verein  in  the  Gleich- 
stellungsfrage,  and  Johannes  Speck  who  is  the  accepted  leader 
of  the  movement  for  the  extension  of  training.  It  should  be 
noted,  furthermore,  that  the  provision  for  local  agents  in 
each  school  (Vertrauensmanner)  makes  it  possible  to  act 
quickly  and  securely,  reaching  the  entire  membership  at 
once.  Whether  they  attend  meetings  or  not  is  quite  unim- 
portant. Membership  in  the  Verein  is  much  like  being  a 
citizen;  the  institution  is  indispensable,  and  membership  is 
considered  a  matter  of  course. 

1  Kunze-Kalender  1911.  *  Mitteilungen,  No.  18,  p.  18. 

»  Bericht,  Gym.  Lehrer  Verein,  1907-8,  p.  9. 


106  THE  OBERLEHRER 

In  discussing  the  work  of  the  Vereine  it  will  be  most  con- 
venient to  take  them  as  a  whole,  since  they  function  sub- 
stantially as  one  through  the  Delegierten-Konferenz.  This 
latter  body  consists  of  two  delegates  from  each  of  the 
twelve  Vereine,  (three  from  such  as  have  over  1,000  mem- 
bers). These  are  chosen  as  permanent  representatives  for 
one  year,  and  meet  from  time  to  time,  as  need  arises  (at  least 
once  a  year),  to  discuss  common  interests.  They  have  a 
strictly  business  purpose.  They  carefully  sift  the  proposi- 
tions of  each  Verein  and  arrive  at  a  conclusion  which  becomes 
the  formulated  policy  of  the  Oberlehrerstand.  The  head  of 
the  Delegierten-Konferenz  is  the  informally  recognized 
intermediary  between  the  Oberlehrer  and  the  Ministry.1  A 
typical  program  of  one  of  their  meetings  will  illustrate  the 
kind  of  work  done: 

1.  Question  as  to  when  the  oath  of  office  shall  be  administered  to 
candidates  for  positions  as  secondary  teachers. 

2.  Participation   of   Oberlehrer   in   the   training    of    elementary 
teachers  for  work  in  the  continuation-schools  as  urged  by  Professor 
Klein  of  Gottingen. 

3.  Problem  of  the  Mittelschullehrer. 

4.  Shall  pupils  be  admitted  to  a  secondary  school  from  Rektorats- 
schulen  without  a  special  examination  ? 

5.  Calculation  of  the  pension-service  age  and  the  notification  of 
each  Oberlehrer  in  regard  to  the  same. 

6.  Establishment  of  courts  for  affairs  of  honor.2 

I  vThe  general  activities  of  the  Vereine  may  be  grouped  for 
convenience  under  three  heads:  i.  Standesfragen,  dealing 
with  the  protection  and  furtherance  of  the  economic  and 
social  interests  of  the  members.  2.  Questions  of  organiza- 
tion and  educational  method  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
3.  Extension  of  professional  training.  The  first  of  these 
groups  contains  the  essential  raison  d'&tre  of  the  whole 
organization  when  viewed  historically,  and  is  today  of 
fundamental  importance.  It  is  coming  to  be  seen,  however, 

1  Oberle-Kosters,  p.  76.  2  Protokoll  der  34.  Del.-Konf. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  107 

that  when  such  questions  have  been  satisfactorily  settled,  the 
organization  still  affords  a  splendid  medium  through  which 
to  work  for  more  ideal  ends.  This  will  appear  more  clearly 
in  the  discussion  of  the  third  group.  The  first  duty  of  the 
Verein  is  to  maintain  the  salary,  pension,  and  insurance 
schedules,  and  to  see  that  they  are  extended  uniformly  to 
every  part  of  the  State.  "  Maintain  ",  in  Prussia,  is  a  purely 
relative  idea,  as  has  been  seen.  The  comparative  method  is 
universal,  and  as  social  considerations  are  always  involved, 
the  process  is  likely  to  produce  a  high  tension  of  feeling.  In 
addition  to  salary,  titles  must  be  secured  as  high  and  as 
numerous  as  those  of  any  other  similar  class,  otherwise  social 
prestige  is  unpaired.  The  result  of  all  this  is  an  amazing 
scramble  that  impresses  an  outsider,  at  first  thought,  as 
childish  and  disgusting.  An  extract  from  a  report  of  a 
Delegierten-Konferenz,  when  the  salary  struggle  was  at  its 
height,  brings  out  the  amusing  lengths  to  which  this  is 
carried.  The  chairman  reports: 

The  demand  for  equality  in  initial  salary  has  encountered  serious 
obstacles.  The  fact  has  been  urged  by  the  representatives  both  of 
other  professions  and  of  the  government  that  for  years  the  Ober- 
lehrer  have  enjoyed  more  favorable  conditions  of  appointment.  The 
judges  have  been  working  to  increase  their  salary  even  beyond  the 
terms  of  the  official  proposals.  The  Berlin  architects'  union  passed 
in  a  memorandum  to  the  budget-commission  which  they  justified  by 
referring  to  the  preference  given  to  the  Oberlehrer.  To  meet  this 
a  statement  of  our  case  was  prepared  and  widely  distributed  in  printed 
form  among  the  representatives.  The  executives  of  the  provincial 
associations  were  informed  of  the  proceeding  and  warned  of  the 
danger  to  our  prospects.  Like  the  judges  and  the  building  inspectors, 
the  district  councillors  vented  their  discontent  at  not  having  their 
final  salaries  raised,  and  published  their  claims  in  the  more  important 
newspapers.  They  had  been  attempting,  underhandedly,  to  get  a 
higher  maximum  than  either  the  judges  or  Oberlehrer.  On  the  other 
hand,  small  groups  of  our  colleagues  endeavored  to  influence  the 
representatives  by  appeals  in  favor  of  "  mechanical  "  equality.  The 
debates  in  the  budget-commission  were  long  drawn  out,  and  its  official 
report  was  supplemented  by  a  comparative  review  of  the  effects  of 


108  THE  OBERLEHRER 

the  proposed  law  upon  the  conditions  of  the  Oberlehrer,  judges,  dis- 
trict councillors  of  the  general  administration,  of  the  railroad,  of  the 
indirect-tax  office,  and  the  building  inspectors.1 

The  necessity  for  such  proceedings  is  a  matter  of  regret  to 
the  Oberlehrer  themselves,  but  it  is  inherent  in  the  system. 
For  individual  competition,  class  competition  has  been  sub- 
stituted. It  is  the  principle  of  evolution  in  a  socialistic 
community,  and  the  group  that  disregards  it  goes  to  the  wall. 
Thus  in  the  counsels  of  the  Verein,  much  time  must  be  given 
to  the  formulation  of  demands.  Among  those  drafted 
recently  (October  8,  1911)  appear  the  following: 

1.  The  title  of  Oberlehrer  should  not  be  conferred  upon  elemen- 
tary or  intermediate  teachers. 

2.  Trustees  of   secondary  institutions  not   under  state   control 
should  be  required  by  law  to  pay  at  least  the  minimum  salary  cur- 
rently in  force  in  state  institutions. 

3.  The  number  of  provincial  school  councillors  should  be  increased, 
and  should  be  given  the  same  rank  and  salary  as  the  higher  district 
councillors. 

4.  The  older  directors  should  receive  the  title  "  Privy  Councillor  " 
under  the  same  conditions  under  which  the  directors  of  the  district 
courts  now  receive  the  title  "  Privy  Judicial  Councillor,"  etc.2 

Another  form  of  protective  activity  aims  at  securing 
uniformity  of  qualifications  for  Oberlehrer,  and  at  preventing 
the  profession  from  being  over-crowded.  This  is  directed 
against  the  encroachments  of  women,3  especially  as  directors 
of  institutions  where  men  are  employed,  and  against  the  use 
of  any  teacher  not  university-trained,  especially  Volksschul- 
lehrer,  in  the  secondary  schools.  Thus  to  cite  again  from 
the  recent  resolutions: 

i.  The  Delegierten-Konferenz  continues  to  entertain  serious  mis- 
givings in  regard  to  the  increasing  appointments  of  intermediate 
teachers  to  the  lower  classes  of  secondary  schools.  The  Konferenz 

1  Protokott  der  32.  Del.-Konf. 

2  Protokoll  der  Del.-Konf.,  8.  Okt.,  1911. 

3  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  8.  Marz,  1911,  p.  148. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  IOQ 

believes  that  the  unity  of  the  staff,  and  of  the  training  and  instruction 
offered  should  be  maintained,  and  that  the  integrity  of  the  secondary 
schools  should  be  preserved.  Pupils  from  intermediate  or  Rek- 
torat  schools  should  be  required  to  take  an  examination  before 
being  admitted  to  secondary  schools. 

2.  It  appears  unfitting  that  graduates  of  Prussian  Normal  Schools 
should  be  admitted  to  the  university. 

As  for  the  over-crowding  of  the  profession,  it  appears  that 
the  attractions  of  the  calling  have  so  increased,  owing  to  the 
recent  scarcity  of  teachers  and  to  the  favorable  legislation, 
that  forty-eight  per  cent  of  all  Abiturients  in  1911  selected  it.1 
This  promises,  at  the  end  of  a  six-year  course,  a  total  of  about 
6,000  candidates  for  not  over  seven  hundred  and  fifty  posi- 
tions. Hence,  whereas  now  candidates  are  appointed  at 
once,  in  that  case  a  wait  of  six  or  eight  years  would  intervene, 
a  situation  that  actually  existed  from  1890  to  1900.  This  it 
is  the  business  of  the  Verein  to  avoid.2 

The  Oberlehrer  are  not  so  rich  in  permanent  protective 
institutions  as  are  the  Volksschullehrer.  Most  of  the  Vereine 
maintain  a  voluntary  insurance  fund  for  widows  and  orphans, 
or  some  form  of  emergency  aid  associations.3  In  1906,  the 
Delegierten-Konferenz  established  a  committee  for  legal 
affairs,  whose  business  it  is  to  aid  members  with  money  and 
advice  in  such  cases  as  may  arise  out  of  professional  duties 
and  are  of  general  interest.4  The  institution  has  been  of 
value,5  but  is  far  from  having  the  importance  of  the  similar 
arrangement  in  the  Volksschullehrerverein.6  This  one  would 
naturally  expect. 

It  is  in  this  class  of  interests  that  the  Oberlehrer  feels  that 
his  association  has,  hitherto,  won  its  most  brilliant  successes, 
but  the  second  group  is  found  often  to  be  closely  related.  • 

1  Piidagogisches  Archiv,  1912,  p.  241. 

2  Deutsches  Philologen-Blatl ,  10.  Jan.,  1912,  pp.  22  ff. 

3  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  25.  Mai,  1911. 

4  Bericht,  Berliner  Gym.  Lehrer-Verein,  1909-10,  pp.  20  ff. 
6  Protokoll  der  31.  Del.-Konf. 

6  Berichte  d.  d.  Lehrerverein. 


no 


THE  OBERLEHRER 


Being  of  an  essentially  broader  and  more  general  concern, 
these  questions  of  educational  organization,  method,  and 
policy,  were  formerly  left  wholly  to  the  authorities,  while 
the  teacher  concerned  himself  with  his  Wissenschaft.  But 
their  importance  as  bearing  directly  upon  his  primary  prob- 
lems has  gained  steadily  in  his  eyes,  and  discussion  has 
educated  him.  As  Ludwig  says: 

This  is  but  another  phase  of  the  same  development.  While  the 
Oberlehrer  was  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle  for  the  dignity  and  prestige 
of  his  profession,  he  learned  above  all  to  value  and  emphasize  the 
main  content  of  that  profession.  When,  therefore,  he  found  himself 
committed  to  the  task  of  assimilating  the  progressive  results  of 
scientific  inquiry  and  of  discovering  the  surest  ways  of  conveying 
these  results  to  the  pupils,  creative  effort  of  his  own  in  a  narrowly 
limited  field  of  knowledge  lost  its  importance  and  charm.1 

In  finding  interests  common  to  himself  and  to  his  colleagues, 
he  found  also  those  of  the  child  he  was  engaged  in  training. 
In  this  way  the  Verein  has  had  no  small  part  in  transforming 
the  earlier  pedant  into  the  modern  teacher.  The  discipline 
of  his  organization  has  made  him  sink  his  own  whims  and 
peculiarities,  and  has  raised  the  actual  sum  of  his  achieve- 
ment by  showing  him  true  aims.2 

Thus  the  conviction  has  gradually  developed  that  the 
individual  teacher  not  only  may,  but  should  assume  the 
responsibility  for  the  solution  of  broad  educational  prob- 
lems —  that  the  whole  field  is  his.  And  especially  in  his 
collective  capacity,  it  is  believed  that  he  is  qualified  to  reach 
an  expert  and  valid  conclusion.  This  it  is  the  tendency  of  the 
educational  authorities  to  admit,  and  the  relations  between 
Verein  and  Ministerium  have  become  very  close.  One 
friend  of  the  writer  declared  that  "  the  greatest  thing  the 
Philologenverein  has  accomplished  is  to  have  made  itself,  if 
not  indispensable,  at  least  a  good  and  always  welcome  friend 
to  the  Ministry  ".  It  is  now  the  regular  course  of  procedure 

1  Phil.-Blatt,  1912,  No.  3,  p.  34.  2  Ibid. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  III 

for  changes  in  school  policy  or  in  regulations  either  to  origi- 
nate in  the  Vereine  as  a  sort  of  lower  house  and  be  passed  on 
to  the  Minister  in  the  form  of  "  Wunsche  ",  or  else  to  be  sent 
down  by  the  latter  in  provisional  form  for  discussion  and 
criticism.  This  is,  of  course,  purely  informal,  but  that  it  is 
now  definitely  expected  is  indicated  by  a  recent,  notable 
exception  which  aroused  the  entire  Oberlehrer-class  to 
general  resentment.  The  impromptu  class  essay,  or  Ex- 
temporale,  used  largely  as  furnishing  a  basis  for  marking 
pupils,  had  been  for  some  time  an  object  of  attack.  Sud- 
denly, without  notice,  an  order  was  issued,  October  21,  1911, 
abolishing  this  form  of  test,1  and  the  news  was  given  to  the 
daily  papers  before  being  made  known  to  the  teachers  them- 
selves. For  months  thereafter  the  order  itself  was  hotly 
discussed  both  pro  and  contra,  but  of  the  method  of  its 
promulgation  there  was  but  one  opinion.  A  writer  in  the 
Korrespondenz-Blatt  for  November  29,  expresses  the  general 
feeling: 

In  the  first  place  the  manner  of  its  publication  has  produced  irri- 
tation. It  would  appear  that  the  custom  of  seeking  the  advice  of 
men  in  the  service,  as  followed  first  by  Althoff,  had  been  unnecessarily 
abandoned.  So  recently  as  in  the  issuance  of  the  last  "  Service  Regu- 
lations "  was  this  custom  effectively  adhered  to.  Here,  however,  we 
have  an  order  direct  from  the  council-table.  It  is  possible  that 
"  irresponsible  and  none  too  expertly  informed  personages  "  have 
been  at  work.  (Schlesische  Zeitung,  V,  29,  10.)  Furthermore,  the 
sensation  was  by  no  means  pleasant  to  see  the  edict  appear  in  the 
public  press  before  being  officially  given  to  the  various  teaching  staffs; 
the  Norddeutsche  Allgemeine  Zeitung  is  no  official  organ  for  such 
publications. 

In  the  sequel,  it  appears  from  private  correspondence  that 
the  delivery  to  the  press  was  a  clerical  mistake  for  which 
apology  has  since  been  made.  Further,  that  hi  a  Verein 
meeting,  called  to  discuss  the  matter,  the  new  order  was 
"  defended  "  by  a  special  delegate  from  the  Ministry  (!). 

1  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  i.  Nov.,  1911,  p.  581. 


112  THE  OBERLEHRER 

s  * 

There  can  be  no  question  that  teachers  continually  trained 
to  this  attitude  of  cooperation  become  better  critics,  more 
intelligent  executives,  and  more  substantial  men.  And, 
what  is  of  greater  moment,  the  schools  and  society  get  the 
benefit.  As  evidence  of  what  the  discussions  of  these  tea- 
chers are  bringing  forth,  the  following  statement  of  their 
desires  in  connection  with  a  proposed  reform  in  the  educa- 
tional administration,  is  of  interest. 

1.  The  composition  of  the  provincial  boards  should  undergo  a 
thorough  revision.      They  must  be  in  closer  touch  with  intellectual 
affairs  on  the  one  hand  and  with  school  practice  on  the  other.     They 
should,  therefore,  be  so  enlarged  as  to  give  a  seat  and  vote  both  to 
university   professors   and   to   practical   schoolmen    (directors   and 
Oberlehrer). 

2.  The  deliberations  and  decisions  of  the  provincial  school  boards 
should  be  conducted  in  common-council  form  throughout. 

3.  The  technical  assistants  in  the  provincial  school  boards  should 
in  the  future  be  employed  for  a  limited  time  only  (two  or  three  years) 
in  the  boards,  and  should  then  return  to  their  service  as  teachers. 

4.  In  the  interests  of  more  effective  school  inspection,  the  number 
of  provincial  school  councillors  should  be  considerably  increased. 
Conformably  to  the  significance  of  their  positions  they  should  be 
given  the  rank  of  councillors  of  the  third  class  and  a  corresponding 
salary. 

5.  The  presidency  of  the  provincial   school  boards   should  be 
divorced  from  the  provincial  government  and  intrusted  to  special 
presidents  with  the  rank  of  councillors  of  the  second  class;    these 
would  then  give  their  entire  time  to  the  business  of  their  office. 

6.  Both  the  president  and  the  directors  of  the  provincial  school 
boards  should  be  school  experts. 

7.  A  higher  judicial  councillor,  a  higher  architectural  councillor 
and  a  higher  medical  councillor  should  be  added  to  each  board,  and 
in  this  form  the  latter  should  be  developed  into  a  separate  provincial 
authority  completely  independent  of  the  provincial  government. 

8.  At  the  central  office  the  affairs  of  all  the  higher  institutions 
should  be  handled  by  a  special  division  of  the  ministry  appointed 
solely  for  this  purpose.     The  direction  of  this  division  should  regularly 
be  in  the  hands  of  a  school  expert.1 

1  Protokoll,  34.  Del.-Konf.,  Beilage  3. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  113 

In  matters  of  general  scientific  and  educational  interest, 
the  deliberations  of  the  Vereine  are  determined  by  local 
preferences,  but  usually  have  to  do  with  practical  problems. 
Speakers  on  these,  as  on  all  other  topics,  are  regularly  drawn 
from  the  membership.  The  stimulus  to  attendance  sought 
hi  the  attraction  of  a  "big  speaker",  does  not  have  the 
consideration  that  is  usually  given  it  in  American  teachers' 
clubs.  During  the  year  1910-11  the  Berlin  Verein  de- 
voted three  sessions  to  these  topics: 

"  The  Teacher  Problem  in  the  United  States." 

"  Self-government  in  Schools  of  the  United  States  and  Germany." 

So  far  as  the  minutes  show,  these  were  the  only  formal 
addresses  on  matters  not  directly  concerned  with  German 
school  questions  in  the  two  years,  1909-11,  and  these  were 
handled  with  a  view  to  their  practical  implications.  Direc- 
tor Seyffert  of  Wiese's  time  could  hardly  be  expected  to  feel 
comfortable  in  such  surroundings. 

The  third  group  of  interests,  the  extension  of  professional 
training,  is ^  a__growth~QfJittle-  niQreL  than  the  past  decade,  so 
far  as  systematic  development  is  concerned.  It  is  the  flower 
of  the  whole  Verein  movement,  —  the  recognition  of  the 
peculiar  place  and  mission  of  the  Oberlehrer.  The  moving 
spirit  of  the  present  effort  was  the  revered  friend  and  counsel- 
lor of  the  Oberlehrer,  Friedrich  Paulsen,  whose  memory  the 
teachers  of  Germany  have  lately  honored  with  a  monument 
at  his  home  in  Steglitz  (October  7,  191 1).1  His  address  at 
the  founding  of  the  Vereinsverband  of  Oberlehrer  in  1904,  was 
one  vigorous  appeal  for  a  return  to  productive  work,  to  the 
scientific  point  of  view,  and  to  this  end  he  demanded  lighter 
work,  greater  freedom  in  instruction,  provision  for  vacation 
courses,  travel-grants,  frequent  leaves-of-absence,  and  above 
all,  the  professional  devotion  of  the  individual  teacher.2 

1  Korrespondenz-Blatl,  25.  Okt.,  1911. 

*  Paulsen,  Die  hoheren  Schulen  Deutschlands. 


114  THE  OBERLEHRER 

His  call  aroused  a  very  general  response;  chiefly  in  applause, 
partly,  as  we  have  seen  above  (Chapter  III),  in  demur  that 
strictly  scientific  activity  in  the  old  sense  was  impossible  for 
the  teacher.  These  differences  are  finding  speedy  recon- 
ciliation, however,  in  a  reinterpretation  of  what  "  Wissen- 
schaft  "  means  for  the  teacher.  To  such  a  conception  as  the 
following,  doubtless  Paulsen  himself  would  subscribe. 

When  occasionally  in  our  profession  weariness  and  indifference 
toward  scholarship  is  encountered,  it  will  be  found  that  the  real  rea- 
son for  it  lies  in  a  mistaken  conception  of  this  truth  which  is  funda- 
mental to  the  doctrine  of  knowledge,  and  therefore  also  to  pedagogy; 
in  an  over-emphasis  upon  the  material  and  empirical  phase  of  our 
power  of  knowing.  If  the  mind  is  a  tabula  rasa,  and  science  and 
education  have  solely  the  task  of  covering  it  with  their  characters, 
then  indeed  the  period  of  independent  scholarly  activity  is  past,  once 
and  for  all,  and  not  only  for  the  Oberlehrer  but  for  anyone  who  can- 
not devote  his  entire  time  to  his  studies.  For  indeed  how  can  the 
individual  teacher,  living  usually  far  from  the  centres  of  scholarship 
and  largely  busied  with  other  matters,  compete  with  one  who  gathers 
his  material  with  ample  apparatus  and  plenty  of  time.  If  on  the 
other  hand,  scholarship  consists  in  an  unceasing  organization  and 
fashioning  of  the  mind  from  within,  then  everyone  has  the  obligation 
to  busy  himself  with  it,  for  according  to  the  measure  of  a  man's  self- 
release  through  intellectual  activity  is  his  worth  and  his  success  in 
his  profession.1 

Little  by  little  efforts  to  secure  and  increase  the  advantages 
for  special  training  received  the  support  not  only  of  the 
government,  but  also  of  the  city  authorities.  Vacation 
courses  for  Oberlehrer  had  existed  since  1890,  when  an 
archaeological  course  was  established  at  Bonn  and  Berlin, 
and  a  course  was  organized  by  Professor  Rein  of  Jena,  for 
teachers  from  all  states.2  Today3  such  courses  are  conducted 
and  supported  by  the  government  in  Berlin,  Bonn,  Trier, 
Frankfort-on-Main,  Florence,  and  Rome.  Partial  expenses 

1  Speck,  Wissenschaftliche  Fortbildung,  p.  n. 

2  Padagogisches  Archiv,  1890,  xxxiii,  p.  444. 
8  1911. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  115 

are  granted  for  travel  in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  and  special 
travel-grants  for  modern  language  teachers  (eighteen  annu- 
ally) and  students  of  archaeology  (five  annually)  are  available. 
Besides,  the  government  gives  official  recommendations  and 
assistance  in  foreign  study,  and,  in  cooperation  with  France, 
England,  and  the  United  States,  has  organized  an  exchange 
of  teachers  that  supplies  admirable  advantages.  The 
individual  cities  are  encouraged  by  the  government  to  do  for 
their  schools  what  it  does  for  the  state  schools.  The  Kor- 
respondenz-Blatt,  November  8,  1911,  contains  a  list  of  some 
seventy  cities  that  grant  regular  assistance  to  their  Ober- 
lehrer  for  traveling  or  for  vacation  study,  and  the  list  has 
since  been  increased.  The  aid  ranges  from  $100  in  small 
towns,  to  $2,750  for  Berlin,  in  annual  appropriations.  These 
sums  represent,  of  course,  a  somewhat  larger  value  in  marks 
than  hi  dollars.  Some  thirty  towns  grant  assistance  on 
special  request,  without  formal  appropriations.  These 
grants  often  stipulate  due  preparation,  genuine  study,  and 
reports  of  some  kind. 

Many  of  the  above-mentioned  provisions  for  extension 
of  training  antedate  Paulsen's  speech  of  1904,  and  they  have 
been  promoted  by  the  constant  and  earnest  solicitation  of 
the  Vereine.  The  most  recent  advance,  led  by  Johannes 
Speck  of  Berlin,  and  due  largely  to  Paulsen's  enthusiasm,  is 
a  movement  to  give  all  these  efforts  a  centre  and  a  home  in 
a  Paulsen-Stiftung  at  Berlin.  Here  is  to  rise  a  commo- 
dious building  with  assembly  halls  and  class-rooms  for 
lectures,  seminars,  and  courses  of  every  description  useful 
to  the  Oberlehrer.  Permanent  exhibits  of  books,  apparatus, 
and  educational  devices  from  all  over  the  world  will  be 
installed.  An  information  office,  travel  bureau,  etc.,  are 
contemplated.  Such  an  institution  is  planned,  in  short, 
as  shall  keep  the  instructor  in  continual  touch  with  the 
varied  educational  and  scientific  progress  everywhere,  and 


Il6  THE  OBERLEHRER 

shall  inspire  him  to  realize  the  widest  possibilities  of  his 
profession.1 

This  practical  undertaking  shows  the  Verein  spirit  at  its 
best.  Ludwig  speaks  for  the  entire  Lehrerschaft  as  follows : 

Here,  therefore,  in  place  of  isolated  achievements,  we  shall  have 
carefully  planned  cooperation.  The  end  is  far  from  attained,  but 
even  the  plans  are  characteristic  of  the  aspirations  of  our  profession. 
They  show  that  the  old  intellectual  idealism  still  lives  among  us,  but 
has  grown  practical;  it  proposes  no  longer  to  follow  fruitless  intel- 
lectual "  sport  ",  but  to  do  work  that  shall,  in  its  modest  way,  promote 
the  life  and  scholarship  of  the  present  day.  Surely  success  cannot 
disappoint  us.  Who  can  doubt  that  the  energy  and  organizing  ability 
which  our  representatives  have  hitherto  displayed  in  such  large 
measure,  will  bring  us  to  this  goal  also  ? 2 

Thus,  having  satisfied  bodily  needs,  so  to  speak,  and  having 
learned  to  participate  actively  in  the  living  questions  of 
education  at  large,  the  entire  body  of  teachers  is  set  to  attain 
that  ideal  end  wherein  the  secret  of  its  efficiency  lies.  In 
this  respect  it  can  be  and  is  an  example  to  the  world. 

To  the  national  organization  of  Oberlehrer  it  is  unnecessary 
to  give  great  attention,  except  to  note  the  striking  fact  that 
it  exists,  nearly  nineteen  thousand  strong,  distributed  in 
forty-one  different  Vereine  and  representing  every  corner  of 
Germany.3  Its  purpose  is  briefly  stated  in  its  constitution : 

Par.  2.  The  purpose  of  the  Federation  is  to  promote  higher  edu- 
cation and  to  labor  for  the  common  interests  of  secondary  teachers. 

Its  meetings  are  gatherings  of  delegates,  one  for  each  three 
hundred  members,  and  are  held  every  two  years;  all  mem- 
bers, however,  participate  in  the  meetings.  The  following 
program  of  the  fifth  biennial  convention  on  April  9,  1912, 
at  Dresden,  will  show  the  nature  of  these  assemblies : 

1  Korrespondenz-Blatt,  20.  und  27.  Sept.,  1911.     Also  Speck,  Wissenschaftliche 
Fortbildung. 

2  Deulsches  Phil.  Blatt,  17.  Jan.,  1912,  p.  34. 

3  Mitteilungen,  No.  18. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER  1 17 

Tuesday,  April  9,  1912.     3  P.M. 
Session  for  delegates  only. 

1.  Amendments  to  the  Constitution. 

2.  Establishment  of  an  information  bureau. 

3.  Further  consideration  of  Dr.  Speck's  resolution. 

4.  Report  on  the  educational  exhibit  at  the  international  exposi- 
tion at  Brussels  and  resolutions  for  the  establishment  of  a  German 
school-museum. 

5.  The  Federation's  periodical. 

For  the  evening  a  visit  to  the  Royal  Theatre  and  an  informal  recep- 
tion are  planned. 

Wednesday,  April  10,  1912. 

I.  Preliminary  Session.     8.30  A.M. 

1.  Freer  organization  of  instruction. 

2.  Women  directors  in  secondary  schools. 

3.  Interest  of  the  Oberlehrer  in  disciplinary  courts. 

II.  Festival  Session.     11.30  A.M. 

1.  Addresses  of  welcome. 

2.  Festival  address:    "The  Secondary  School  and  the  National 
Idea." 

3.  Announcement  of  the  decisions  reached  in  the  preliminary 
session  and  the  session  for  delegates. 

III.  Main  Session.     3  P.M. 

1.  Committees  on  literature  for  young  people. 

2.  Problem  of  the  intermediate  teacher  and  related  considerations. 

3.  Equality  with  the  judges. 

A  banquet  will  take  place  in  the  evening.  The  third  day  will  be 
reserved  for  sight-seeing  and  excursions  to  Meissen  and  Saxon  Switzer- 
land in  case  business  does  not  require  the  time.1 

In  actual  operation  the  work  of  this  association  is  ideal 
rather  than  practical,  on  account  of  the  lack  of  the  common 
educational  basis  which  makes  the  state  Vereine  so  effective. 
It  lends  the  force  of  moral  support  to  the  struggles  of  sepa- 
rate associations,  but  can  do  little  more  than  deliberate.  Its 
influence  in  general  questions,  however,  like  that  of  equal 
pay  and  extension  of  training,  has  been  great  from  the 
beginning.2 

Before  taking  leave  of  the  organizations  of  Oberlehrer  and 
their  work,  it  is  worth  while  to  listen  to  the  criticisms  which 

1  Mitteilungen,  No.  18,  p.  15.  2  Mitteilungen,  Nos.  4,  6,  12. 


Il8  THE  OBERLEHRER 

must  necessarily  be  aroused  by  such  a  movement.  These 
surely  have  not  been  wanting  in  Germany.  Now  that  the 
Oberlehrer  possess  a  voice  and  can  fight,  they  have  been  put 
to  the  task  of  personal  defense  far  more  than  formerly  when 
the  attacks  were  aimed  primarily  at  the  school.1  Much  of 
this  is  the  usual  superficial  warfare  of  the  press,  but  a  more 
serious  form  of  complaint  is  that  represented  by  the  follow- 
ing passage  from  one  who,  as  much  as  any  living  man,  has  the 
schools  of  Germany  upon  his  heart,  Georg  Kerschensteiner. 
Speaking  of  the  struggle  of  the  different  school  forms  for 
equal  recognition,  he  says: 

So  much  is  unquestionably  certain:  this  struggle  never  arose  as  a 
matter  of  culture  alone.  Besides  the  equal  recognition  of  the  various 
branches  of  study,  the  equal  recognition  of  the  teachers  played  a  very 
significant  part  in  the  fight;  so  also  the  prospect  of  a  finer  pupil- 
material  and  the  equal  recognition  of  subjects  with  special  reference 
to  their  prestige  in  the  council  of  teachers  and  in  the  curriculum. 
Here  was  the  chance  for  the  Reallehrer  to  wear  the  venerated  toga  of 
the  Gymnasialprofessor,  and  he  had  visions  of  the  director's  nine- 
pointed  diadem.  I've  occasionally  had  the  feeling  that  throughout 
the  battle,  professional  class-interests  have  had  more  decisive  weight 
than  the  interests  of  education.  And  today  as  I  follow  the  pre- 
liminary deliberations  and  discussions  over  the  curriculum  of  the 
new  Bavarian  Oberrealschulen,  as  they  are  conducted  among  the 
teachers  concerned,  I  regret  to  see  the  correctness  of  this  feeling 
confirmed.2 

Though  intended  for  the  partisans  of  special  schools,  the 
above  opinion  represents  a  wide-spread  view  of  the  activity 
of  the  Standesvereine  in  general.  "  Professedly  the 
Verein  is  for  the  school ",  it  is  said,  "  but  where  did  the 
interest  of  the  school  ever  fail  to  coincide  with  that  of  the 
Verein  ?  "  This  is  no  doubt  true  of  some  questions  and  at 
some  times,  but  the  total  worth  of  the  Verein  cannot  be  so 
judged.  It  needs,  indeed,  careful  criticism  from  without. 
It  is  by  criticism  from  without  that  it  finally  stands  or  falls 

1  Ludwig,  Philologen-Blalt,  1912,  No.  3. 

2  Kerschensteiner,  Grundfragen,  p.  206. 


THE  SOLIDARITY  OF  THE  OBERLEHRER 

in  any  case.  But  if  it  be  true,  as  has  appeared,  that  genuine 
adaptation  to  function  is  the  only  ground  for  consideration, 
there  should  be  no  fear  of  a  lasting  false  relation  under  such 
circumstances.  The  public  will  be  the  inevitable  tribunal, 
and  unwarranted  claims  will  disappear  of  themselves.  The 
number  of  points  at  which  the  interests  of  the  Verein  as  a 
whole  do  coincide  with  the  genuine  interests  of  the  school  is 
so  great  that  the  benefits  of  cooperation  far  outweigh  the 
disadvantages,  and  any  one  who  knows  the  class  of  men 
involved  will  probably  agree  in  the  prophecy  that  the  proper 
identity  of  those  interests  will  tend  to  become  more  and 
more  complete. 


CHAPTER  V 

SUMMARY 

THE  development  of  the  schoolmaster  has  been  traced  from 
his  earliest  appearance  in  Germany  to  the  present  day. 
The  periods  marking  the  chief  phases  in  his  evolution  may 
be  rapidly  reviewed  and  their  broad  significance  suggested. 
The  first  period,  to  1750,  was  characterized  by  an  objective, 
mechanical  conception  of  education,  that  lasted  well  into 
the  eighteenth  century,  in  spite  of  over-currents  of  another 
sort.  The  function  of  the  schoolmaster  had  attained  little 
if  any  inner  contact  with  life.  Teaching  was  a  trade  like  any 
other,  even  to  the  extent  of  organization  as  a  guild  —  a  sys- 
tem that  was  long  perpetuated.  It  required  a  certain 
elementary  skill,  and  opened  the  way  into  a  highly  respected 
career,  but  in  itself  it  was  no  great  art.  The  character  of 
the  schoolmaster,  indeed,  was  quite  out  of  proportion  to  his 
work,  for  the  latter  remained  as  it  began,  —  an  incident  in 
the  life  of  the  priest,  and  when  that  relation  was  broken,  the 
independent  schoolmaster  sank  low. 

The  second  period  witnessed  a  complete  revolution.  This 
may  be  characterized  as  the  period  of  idealism,  or  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  one  following,  the  period  of  idealism 
with  a  fixed  means  of  realization,  that  is,  assimilation  of 
Greek  culture.  The  conception  of  education  now  becomes 
subjective  and  personal;  it  is  pursued  with  the  reverence  and 
ardor  of  a  religion,  and  education  is  regarded  at  every  point 
as  a  profoundly  significant  process.  Greek  antiquity,  the 
guide  to  the  newly  discovered  ideal,  is  worshiped  as  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  the  discovery  itself.  The  work  of  the  tea- 
cher has  become  distinct  from  that  of  the  clergy,  and  has, 


SUMMARY  121 

indeed,  assumed  a  certain  halo  of  its  own.  Furthermore,  its 
ami  has  become  strongly  patriotic,  and  it  has  been  con- 
sciously assigned  an  exalted  mission  in  society.  This 
enormous  gain  in  function  is  accompanied  by  a  similar  gain 
in  the  personal  character  and  status  of  the  teacher.  In  the 
high  position  created  for  him  by  the  New  Humanism,  he 
has  become  a  new  being.  Not  even  today  does  the  school- 
teacher occupy  a  position  relatively  as  distinguished  as 
that  which  he  held  in  the  best  moments  of  this  new  era. 

But  the  enthusiasm  and  the  reverence  waned;  the  halo  dis- 
appeared. In  the  place  of  the  builder  of  men,  there  emerged 
the  architect  of  language,  and  the  primary  aim  was  forgotten. 
The  teacher  was  industrious  and  worthy  still,  but  his  social 
efficiency  became  steadily  less.  His  social  importance 
followed  like  a  shadow  in  spite  of  the  artificial  support  of 
political  favor,  and  at  the  end  of  the  period  he  typically 
appears  as  a  powerless,  derided  pensioner  of  the  state. 

The  third  period  also  stands  for  idealism,  but  recognizes 
a  multitude  of  means  for  its  achievement.  The  real  bequest 
of  New  Humanism  remains  undiminished.  In  fact,  its 
capital  has  been  largely  increased  through  the  discovery  that 
idealism  is  human  and  universal,  and  not  restricted  to  a 
single  medium  for  its  communication.  So  the  function  of  the 
teacher  has  returned  to  its  large  proportions.  It  is  a  quest 
not  for  knowledge,  but  for  true  and  productive  outlets  for  life; 
it  is  a  sympathetic  review,  with  a  young  mind,  of  suggested 
forms  for  self-expression;  it  requires  abundant  knowledge 
both  of  the  present  and  of  the  past,  great  insight  into  the 
future,  and  power.  This  is  the  spirit  of  the  present  period, 
and  its  development  has  just  begun.  Already  the  teacher's 
social  standing  has  risen  to  a  level  with  that  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished public  servants.  It  is  impossible  that  anything 
but  social  fitness  should  have  brought  it  there.  Should  it, 
in  the  future,  rise  above  the  level  of  military  officer  or  civil 


122  THE  OBERLEHRER 

judge,  it  may  be  assumed  that  it  will  do  so  only  because  the 
teacher's  inherent  power  to  serve  the  changing  ideals  of  the 
nation  entitles  it  so  to  rise. 

The  second  object  of  the  study  was  to  trace  the  main 
features  in  the  growing  collective  consciousness  of  the  teach- 
ing class.  It  was  seen  that,  rising  within  the  church,  the 
activity  of  the  teacher  throughout  the  first  period  was  com- 
pletely overshadowed  by  its  parent  institution.  Whatever 
motives  of  class  feeling  were  present  in  the  schoolmaster  were 
absorbed  in  the  sense  that  his  service  was  but  an  incident  in 
his  clerical  profession,  and  that  as  a  teacher  he  had  no 
standing.  With  the  increasing  power  of  the  state  and  the 
gradual  decline  in  the  relative  importance  of  the  church,  his 
fortunes  took  an  unexpected  turn.  In  1810,  and  the  years 
immediately  subsequent,  he  found  himself  freed  from  his  old 
superior,  and  allied  directly  with  the  secular  power.  The 
very  conditions  of  this  connection  prepared  the  ground  for  a 
collective  consciousness.  Education  was  to  be  a  state 
function,  the  teacher  was  its  agent;  from  the  fact  of  a  com- 
mon function  sprang  the  consciousness  of  common  class 
interests.  Under  the  circumstances,  however,  the  dif- 
ferentiation was  incomplete.  The  secondary  teacher  had, 
indeed,  been  cut  loose  from  the  church,  but  under  the  new 
order  he  was  immediately  taken  in  tow  by  the  university. 
His  sympathies  were  there,  he  sent  his  product  thither,  and 
he  himself  aspired  to  a  position  in  the  higher  institution.  So 
the  horizontal  currents  found  little  encouragement,  broken 
as  they  were  by  the  vertical  impulses.  The  scientific  organ- 
izations that  came  into  being  included  university  and  school 
men  promiscuously,  and  still  further  weakened  the  distinc- 
tion between  them. 

Thus  it  went  on  until  the  seventies,  when  new  forces  that 
had  long  been  felt  came  fully  into  play.  '  The  great,  new 
public  of  the  Realschulen  and  the  demand  for  a  readjustment 


SUMMARY      « 
t/4/tth  -   f.fj 

in  the  Gymnasien  on  the  one  side,  and  a  widening  breach 
with  the  specialized  sciences  at  the  university  on  the  other,  _ 
suddenly  brought  the  Oberlehrer  to  the  consciousness  that  he 
stood  alone.     Drawn  from  his  scholarly  retirement,  he  was 
forced  to  restate  his  amis  and  to  undertake  a  new  and  exact- 
ing commission.     Facing  an  untried  future  with  claims  to*" 
make  as  well  as  claims  to  meet,  he  found  union  with  his 
colleagues  inevitable  and  easily  accomplished. 

The  results  of  this  union  are  our  special  concern.  When 
the  organization  was  formed,  the  tradition  inherited  from  a 
reactionary  period  made  the  government  still  suspicious  of 
such  bodies.  It  has,  however,  steadily  and  effectively  led 
its  members,  and  has  been  the  mouthpiece  of  their  demands 
until  their  goal  has  been  finally  reached,  and  the  equilibrium 
toward  which  they  pressed,  has  been  established.  In  the 
meantime  the  ideal  objects  of  the  profession  have  steadily 
increased  in  clearness  and  significance  during  the  struggle 
in  which  they  were,  in  a  sense  then  scarcely  realized,  at 
stake.  Hostility  from  the  ministry  has  given  place  to  a 
complete  understanding.  The  Oberlehrer,  in  their  organized 
form,  now  constitute  the  government's  best  counsellors  and 
critics.  For  themselves,  on  the  other  hand,  the  class  spirit, 
trained  to  united  and  purposeful  action,  promises  to  serve 
their  high  professional  ideals  with  wonderful  effect.  Their 
belief  is  that  the  new  epoch  is  the  great  one  for  which  the 
past  has  merely  laid  a  secure  foundation.  •  An  almost 
perfect  solidarity  in  the  interest  of  a  great  social  and  intellec- 
tual ambition  furnishes  all  the  conditions  for  a  remarkable 
future. 


CHAPTER  VI 

AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS 

AN  attempt  to  summarize  the  conditions  which  surround  a 
worker  in  one  land,  and  to  deduce  therefrom  suggestion  or 
encouragement  for  a  worker  in  another,  meets  at  once  with 
serious  obstacles.  Differences  in  race,  customs,  tempera- 
ment, and  physical  environment;  variations  in  political, 
social,  and  economic  composition  —  all  seem  to  impose  such 
a  burden  of  proof  upon  the  thoughtful  reformer  that  the 
force  of  his  enthusiasm  is  usually  much  diminished  by  the 
time  he  has  his  proposal  fit  for  application.  It  must  be 
acknowledged,  however,  that  out  of  just  such  comparison 
and  suggestion  has  come  the  extraordinary  progress  that 
characterizes  the  present  age  of  swift  communication.  An 
attentive  observer  cannot  fail  to  distinguish  here  and  there, 
in  foreign  practice,  relations  or  conditions  which  impress 
him  as  immediately  applicable  in  his  own  native  situation. 
It  is  the  purpose  of  the  writer,  therefore,  to  hazard  here 
some  considerations  for  which  the  preceding  study  is  the 
basis;  whether  these  give  evidence  of  mere  idle  desire  or 
of  timely  insight  may  best  be  left,  perhaps,  to  the  judg- 
ment of  those  who  are  less  under  the  spell  of  foreign 

example. 

i.   Professional  Training 

In  his  splendid  professional  training  the  German  Ober- 
lehrer  furnishes  an  irresistible  object-lesson.  New  Human^ 
ism  made  this  training  scholarly  and  gave_the  Oberlehrer 
reputation;  the  readjustment  effected  during  the  past  forty 
years  has  given  the  training  a  true  aim,  and  has  made  the 
teacher  supremely  useful.-  Both  scholarship  and  truth  of 
aim  are  imitable  qualities,  and  their  possession  by  the  Ameri- 

124 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  125 

can  teacher  is  devoutly  to  be  wished.  As  the  teacher  here  in 
question  is  the  high  school  teacher,  it  may  be  urged  that  the 
comparison  involves  two  unlike  quantities.  The  Gymnasium 
is  considerably  more  than  the  American  high  school,  though 
considerably  less  than  the  American  college,  and  the  Ober- 
lehrer  properly  represents  a  higher  degree  of  training  than 
the  high  school  teacher.  This  is,  of  course,  true;  but  the 
objection  is  negligible.  The  high  school  is  rapidly  achieving 
an  independent  unity.  It  has  broken  loose  from  the  tutelage 
of  the  college,  and  is  being  trusted  more  and  more  to  pass 
upon  the  qualifications  of  its  own  pupils.  It  is  seeking  ef- 
fective adaptation  to  a  wide  range  of  social  purposes  and 
obligations,  and  is  seriously  studying  its  responsibilities  for 
revealing  the  sources  of  permanent  happiness  and  success  in 
future  American  citizens.  Its  development  promises  to  be 
upward;  certainly  it  will  not  yield  to  any  downward  en- 
croachment of  the  college;  its  patronage  feels  such  pressure 
too  slightly.  In  other  words,  the  high  school  is  probably 
destined  to  broaden  and  intensify  to  a  degree  quite  equivalent 
to  the  Gymnasium,  an  institution,  like  itself,  of  school 
character  throughout. 

Granting,  therefore,  that  the  comparison  is  justified  or,  if 
not  wholly  so  at  present,  that  it  is  for  our  advantage  to  make 
the  most  of  it,  the  problem  is,  what  measures  are  there  that 
will  do  for  American  teachers  that  which  the  examination 
ordinance  of  1810  did  for  the  German  Oberlehrer  ?  We 
want  depth  and  pointedness  of  training  that  shall  select  and 
fashion  men  and  women  who  will  work  with  a  clear  purpose, 
and  love  their  work  because  they  understand  it.  In  no  social 
occupation  is  there  greater  inherent  opportunity  for  happy 
self-expression  than  in  teaching.  Yet  this  joy  in  work,  the 
universal  and  all-powerful  factor  in  eliciting  great  service, 
often  perishes  in  the  teacher  as  the  result  of  sheer  igno- 
rance, and  in  place  of  the  eager,  self-spending  artist  at  the 


126  THE  OBERLEHRER 

task  we  get  too  often  the  thrifty,  patient,  or  indifferent 
mechanic.  Further,  we  seek  measures  that  shall  give  this 
training  uniformity  of  content  sufficient  to  serve  as  the  basis 
for  a  genuine  and  productive  professional  fellowship.  The 
astonishing  solidarity  of  the  German  is  impossible  with  us, 
even  in  a  single  state,  and  this  no  American  can  regret.  We 
have  unbounded  admiration  for  the  German  system  in  its 
home,  but  among  us  another  spirit  moves  which  must  for- 
ever be  more  precious  than  any  borrowed  genius.  The 
footfalls  of  the  pioneer  and  the  explorer  still  haunt  the  path 
even  of  the  American  teacher.  To  commit  himself  forever 
in  one  momentous  decision  to  a  routine  that  may  prove  to  be 
in  his  case  mere  routine  is  to  him  distressing,  and  will  prob- 
ably long  be  unnecessary.  But  the  vagrant  period  is  past. 
With  all  recognition  of  varying  personality,  initiative,  and 
experience  we  must  ensure  the  high  level  of  these  traits. 
Hitherto  the  demands  in  the  large  cities  of  the  country  have 
brought  the  most  pronounced  gains  in  professional  require- 
ments. Here  centralized  administration  has  created  situa- 
tions most  nearly  comparable  to  the  Prussian  organization  as 
a  whole.  Here  teachers  are  examined  and  sometimes 
trained;  they  are  given  permanent  appointments,  a  fixed  and 
fairly  adequate  salary,  and  occasionally  a  pension  on  leaving 
the  service.  This  centralized  procedure  is  duplicated  from 
city  to  city,  with  such  wide  variations  of  detail,  however, 
that  the  teachers  of  each  community  are  still  effectively 
isolated  in  all  but  certain  ideal  interests.  Our  great  com- 
monwealth of  teachers  is  broadminded  and  democratic,  it  is 
generous  and  high-spirited,  but  it  is  utterly  indefinite  in  its 
composition,  vague  in  its  aims,  and  almost  helpless  in  execu- 
tion. It  lacks  entirely  the  cohesion  and  the  resulting  power 
of  great  achievement  that  it  might  possess  should  it  define 
and  concentrate  its  membership,  clarify  its  aims,  and 
strengthen  its  executive  organization. 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  127 

It  has  been  suggested  that  this  solidarity  be  secured 
through  state  regulation,  and  it  would  be  easy  to  cite  the 
Prussian  precedent  hi  favor  of  this  method.  Uniform  state 
examinations  for  secondary  teachers  with  certificates  for 
perhaps  two  degrees  of  training  and  experience,  valid  any- 
where in  the  state,  would  undoubtedly  bring  improvement, 
provided  that  the  examinations  were  conducted  with 
reasonable  insight  and  in  accordance  with  a  permanent 
policy.  The  lower  grades  of  teaching  would  surely  be 
benefited.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  the  best  schools  would 
still  have  reason  for  criticism.  A  state  board  of  examiners 
is  exposed  to  political  entanglements  even  more  than  is  a  city 
board,  and  in  many  states  the  field  of  choice  is  none  too  large. 
But  there  is  another  much  more  serious  objection.  The 
educational  democracy  of  this  nation  is  in  reality  quite  inde- 
pendent of  state  lines.  The  American  teacher  today,  at 
least  if  he  be  young,  desires  to  be  a  citizen  of  the  entire 
country;  it  is  his  business  to  know  the  nation  as  a  whole, 
and  to  feel  its  educational  oneness,  not  as  a  provincial  asso- 
ciate, but  as  an  active  participant  fully  conversant  with  the 
nation's  problems.  Such  an  ambition  is  as  praiseworthy  as 
it  is  inevitable  in  this  country,  but  what  have  forty-eight 
different  standards  of  examination  to  contribute  to  its 
realization  ?  What  of  the  professional  fellowship  that  can 
come  only  with  the  sense  of  a  common  official  citizenship  in 
American  secondary  education  ? 

In  the  search  for  a  better  plan,  the  writer  has  the  following 
to  suggest.  It  would  seem  by  no  means  impracticable  for 
the  school  boards  of,  say,  three  leading  cities,  Boston,  New 
York,  and  Chicago,  to  unite  upon  a  common  series  of  quali- 
fications for  high  school  teachers.  The  requirements  of  these 
centres  are  essentially  identical.  To  arrange  for  a  joint 
examining  board  would  be  a  simple  matter  of  mutual  agree- 
ment, and  the  character  of  such  a  board,  drawn  from  the 


128  THE  OBERLEHRER 

ablest  educational  leadership  in  the  country  and  lifted  well 
above  local  considerations,  should  be  decidedly  superior  in 
breadth  of  vision  and  in  statesmanship  to  bodies  at  present 
existing  for  that  purpose.  To  teachers  in  these  respective 
cities  there  would  come  at  once  the  consciousness  of  more 
than  local  standing.  These  being  the  first  cities  in  the 
country,  a  certain  sense  of  national  importance  would  furnish 
the  basis  for  a  similar  sense  of  national  responsibility  as  a 
Kulturbeamter  of  the  nation.  Such  teachers  would  be 
eligible  to  appointment  in  all  cities  that  were  parties  to  the 
agreement,  without,  of  course,  binding  the  individual  choice 
within  the  list,  and  they  would  find  thus  the  means  for 
gratifying  individual  preferences,  subject  to  the  prevailing 
local  conditions. 

Such  an  arrangement  would  be  of  undoubted  benefit  to 
the  cities  concerned,  but  the  larger  importance  of  the  pro- 
posal lies  in  the  possibility  of  its  furnishing  the  nucleus  of  a 
general  standardizing  authority  available  for  any  school 
system  in  the  country.  Inaugurated  as  an  agreement 
between  the  original  parties,  the  board  should  have  power  to 
invite  every  other  city,  so  disposed,  to  participate  in  the 
arrangement,  seeking  by  the  excellence  of  its  administration 
to  attract  a  wide  recognition.  The  adherence  of  a  large 
number  of  cities,  won  in  this  way,  would  make  the  institution 
truly  national  —  a  central  Qualification  Board  granting 
certificates  accepted  throughout  the  country,  and  represent- 
ing a  definite  standard  of  training  and  teaching  ability. 
Such  a  board  could  command  the  services  of  the  best  experts 
in  the  country,  and  could  regulate  by  its  single  jurisdiction 
the  conditions  governing  the  training  of  teachers  generally. 
It  is  urged,  and  with  great  force,  that  examination  is  an 
unsatisfactory  measure  of  a  teacher's  worth,  that  skill  dis- 
covered in  professional  courses  or  developed  through  actual 
experience  is  missed  by  any  formal  tests  hitherto  devised. 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  1 29 

It  is  for  precisely  such  sources  of  waste  as  these  that  a  board 
organized  as  suggested,  could  best  take  thought.  It  would 
be  quite  undesirable  to  confine  its  activities  to  formal 
examinations.  The  determination  of  standards,  the  ap- 
proval of  certain  satisfactory  schools  or  courses,  the  allow- 
ance for  special  training,  experience,  particular  aptitude,  and 
so  on,  could  be  controlled  far  better  by  a  single  expert 
authority  working  in  a  detached  and  impersonal  manner  than 
by  scattered  and  inferior  local  committees.  Its  influence 
would  rest  wholly  upon  the  continued  excellence  of  its 
work;  incessant  criticism  of  this  work  would  insure  its  close 
touch  with  popular  demands.  There  is  something  remark- 
able in  the  contagion  of  a  successful  idea  among  the  semi- 
independent  state  communities  of  America.  The  career 
of  the  College  Entrance  Examination  Board  is  an  illustra- 
tion: it  proved  its  worth  from  small  beginnings,  and  grew 
to  large  proportions  by  voluntary  accessions.  So  here,  local 
adoption  of  an  obviously  efficient  institution  would  doubt- 
less be  swift  and  widespread,  and  would  prove  more  educa- 
tive than  the  legal  compulsion  that  in  another  country  might 
be  imposed  from  above. 

The  fact  of  a  high  and  uniform  degree  of  professional 
training  in  Germany  is  especially  noteworthy  in  view  of 
the  character  which  that  training  has  assumed  in  the  last 
quarter  century.  In  the  German  program  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  school  procedure 
from  beginning  to  end  and  a  criticized  practical  introduc- 
tion to  teaching  for  every  beginner  are  the  indispensable 
premises  to  a  teacher's  career.  The  appropriateness  of 
these  requirements  we  must  unhesitatingly  admit.  To  be 
sure  our  first  purpose  hi  America  must  be  to  define  and 
intensify  that  phase  of  professional  training  that  consists  in 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subjects  to  be  taught.  But 
to  stop  here  in  equipping  for  his  life's  task  a  teacher  who  is 


130  THE  OBERLEHRER 

no  longer  on  his  way  to  the  pulpit,  is  assuredly  a  mistake. 
The  German  models  in  this  more  strictly  professional  form  of 
preparation  should  serve  us  well,  though  certain  details  will 
require  adjustment.  Thus,  contrary  to  the  German  prac- 
tice, we  seem  to  be  committed  to  the  plan  of  schools  of  edu- 
cation in  the  universities  with  practice-schools  affiliated. 
This  arrangement  affords  some  advantages.  The  German 
seminars,  conducted  altogether  by  schoolmen,  are  criticized 
chiefly  for  a  weakness  in  theory,  a  lack  that  a  German  uni- 
versity student  can  better  endure  than  can  graduates  of 
American  colleges.  This  lack  is  most  easily  remedied  in  a 
university  setting.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  question 
whether  just  here  may  not  lie  a  serious  obstacle  to  success. 
Any  university  or  any  college  may  develop,  on  short  notice, 
a  "  school  "  or  "  department  "  of  education  consisting  of  a 
single  lecturer  presenting  only  the  most  abstract  material;  of 
professional  laboratory  work  which  should  be  the  one  indis- 
pensable feature  of  such  a  school  there  is  no  thought. 
Furthermore  even  where  practice  facilities  are  attached, 
their  character  and  relation  to  the  central  department  have 
nowhere  as  yet  been  satisfactorily  worked  out.  The  practice 
school  is  in  some  places  confused  with  the  "  model  "  school, 
serviceable  in  its  way  for  observation  but  likely  to  drop  its 
"  practice "  feature  at  an  early  stage  and  succumb  to 
urgent  temptations  that  convert  it  into  a  socially  exclusive 
source  of  revenue.  Where  a  genuine  practice-school  is 
maintained,  on  the  other  hand,  the  large  number  of  candi- 
dates in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  school  is  likely  to  result 
in  producing  an  unnatural  and  therefore  comparatively  use- 
less institution.  The  German  plan  completely  forestalls 
such  blunders  by  plunging  a  candidate  directly  into  the 
environment  for  which  it  is  desired  to  prepare  him.  The 
school  to  which  he  is  attached  is  a  full-sized  working  institu- 
tion in  which  his  presence  makes  no  perceptible  impression. 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  13! 

This  ensures  that  at  least  his  primary  need  will  be  met  —  he 
will  be  brought  into  direct  contact  with  his  problems  in  a 
critical  atmosphere;  what  he  receives  hi  the  form  of  pedagogi- 
cal theory,  on  the  other  hand,  will  depend  on  his  director. 
It  is  this  serious  analysis  of  practical  instruction  and  criti- 
cized participation  in  it  that  must,  in  some  way  or  other,  be 
secured  to  the  candidate  for  a  high  school  position.  Without 
it,  college  courses  in  education  must  not  only  inevitably  fall 
short  of  their  professional  purpose;  they  must  continue  as 
they  chiefly  are  at  present,  highly  generalized  and  theoreti- 
cal, or  else  vague  and  amateurish,  lacking  a  sane,  organic 
application  to  their  natural  problems.  The  failure  of  schools 
of  education  to  make  this  provision  is  primarily  responsible 
for  that  tendency  of  normal  schools  to  push  their  ambitions 
beyond  their  reasonable  foundation  and  to  substitute  the 
"  professional  idea  "  for  genuine  professional  capacity.  If 
professional  educational  training  for  secondary  schools  is 
to  be  had  where  the  best  opinion  believes  it  to  belong  — 
embedded  in  the  university  —  every  effort  should  be  made  to 
supply  this  lack. 

The  precise  form  in  which  this  laboratory  practice  should 
be  organized  has  nowhere  as  yet  been  finally  worked  out. 
The  inferences  from  German  experience,  however,  would 
lead  one  emphatically  to  favor  such  an  arrangement  as 
would  bring  the  university  department  of  education  into 
intimate  working  relations  with  one  or  more  local  school 
systems.  It  should  enable  a  candidate  to  undertake  the  full 
work  and  responsibility  of  a  secondary  teacher  under  the 
usual  conditions,  subject  the  while  to  competent  direction 
and  criticism  both  from  within  the  school  and  from  the  best 
brains  in  the  university  department.  Such  a  plan  has  been 
in  successful  operation  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  for 
several  years,  not  only  for  secondary  teachers  in  connection 
with  Brown  University,  but  also,  as  it  happens,  for  the 


132  THE  OBERLEHRER 

elementary  teachers  from  the  Rhode  Island  State  Normal 
School  as  a  supplement  to  their  own  observation  classes. 
Although  this  work  is  not  an  absolute  prerequisite  for 
appointment  to  Providence  city  high  schools,  preference 
is  given  to  such  as  have  had  this  training.  Some  such 
favorable  state  or  municipal  regulation  seems  indispensable 
in  order  to  buttress  the  demand  for  this  qualification  in 
teachers.  The  only  danger  is  that  a  department  may  be 
tempted  to  rest  heavily  upon  the  regulation  instead  of  de- 
veloping sound  and  sufficient  courses  to  make  the  practice 
period  appear  to  the  candidate  as  the  necessary  crowning 
feature  of  his  training. 

A  plan  similar  to  that  followed  at  Brown  is  in  operation 
at  Harvard  University.  Here,  however,  the  affiliation  of 
Education  department  and  school  system  has  become  so 
intimate  that  the  studies  in  the  university  seminaries  in  edu- 
cation regularly  take  the  form  of  individual  or  cooperative 
studies  in  the  schools  themselves.  These  involve  the  candi- 
date and  the  school  teachers  in  a  multitude  of  joint  en- 
terprises that  cover  the  whole  field  of  organization  and 
instruction.  An  arrangement  of  this  sort  discloses  possibili- 
ties which  mark  a  distinct  advance  upon  anything  with 
which  the  writer  is  familiar  in  Germany,  and  which  appear  to 
point  the  way  to  a  nearly  ideal  solution  of  the  problem  of 
training  secondary  teachers. 

2.   Conditions  of  Service 

Several  features  that  are  especially  worthy  of  notice  in  a 
comparative  study  of  the  German  and  American  teacher  have 
here  been  grouped  together.  Each  of  them  constitutes  an 
important,  though  not  indispensable,  factor  in  the  progres- 
sive development  of  the  teaching  profession  both  in  its 
inherent  efficiency  and  dignity  as  well  as  in  outward  recogni- 
tion. Before  passing  to  those  matters  wherein  American 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  133 

schools  appear  to  need  the  benefit  of  German  example,  it  is 
fair  to  mention  certain  notable  respects  wherein  they  seem 
to  the  writer  to  be  conspicuously  in  advance  of  German 
practice. 

The  first  is  the  element  of  general  freedom  of  function, 
both  for  school  and  teacher.  Standardization  of  curriculum 
and  minute  regulation  of  method  have  proceeded  apace 
through  the  century  in  Germany,  and  today  hang  like  a 
leaden  weight  about  the  neck  of  the  instructor  who  fails  to 
realize  the  bondage  which  has  become  so  familiar.  Adolph 
Matthias,  for  several  years  an  influential  member  of  the 
state  ministry  of  education,  noted  the  conditions  in  1901 
as  follows: 

Ever  since  1892,  the  authorities  have  declared  again  and  again  that 
they  would  be  glad  to  see  the  curricula  handled  in  a  liberal  spirit. 
Intelligent  and  enterprising  directors  and  keen,  self-reliant  groups  of 
teachers  have  done  their  part  to  avoid  the  strait-jacket,  but  in  vain. 
It  has  ever  recurred  that  men,  thought  to  be  wholly  reasonable,  for 
sheer  personal  comfort  clung  to  the  letter  of  the  law  in  order  to  avoid 
responsibility.  That  pedantic  tendency,  characteristic  of  many  Ger- 
mans, to  long  for  narrowing  standards  and  prescriptions  has  stood 
continually  in  the  way  of  free,  healthy  application  of  the  curricula. 
Schools  have  not  seldom  taken  on  the  aspect  of  factories  where  forever 
the  same  threads  were  spun,  and  all  work  seemed  a  burden  instead  of 
a  joy.1 

What  Matthias  unconsciously  indicts  here  is  the  system,  and 
it  was  against  the  system  that  Paulsen  cried:  "  Freedom, 
freedom  for  personal  influence  and  for  the  unfolding  of 
personal  power  is  the  thing  for  which  we  must  strive  above 
all  else  ",2  although  most  of  his  hearers  may  scarcely  have 
discerned  his  meaning. 

The  American  high  school  has  had  its  period  of  bondage 
too,  from  which  the  day  of  deliverance  is  just  now  being 
preached.  It  is,  nevertheless,  in  a  better  case.  In  Germany 

1  Monatsschrift  fur  hohere  Schulen,  I,  p.  6. 
*  Paulsen:  Die  hoheren  Schulen,  p.  28. 


134  THE  OBERLEHRER 

it  is  the  ideal  of  organization  that  prevents  freedom;  with 
us  the  bonds  of  college  entrance  requirements,  invented  to 
standardize  admissions,  are  now  being  relaxed  because  of  a 
change  of  ideal  as  to  what  constitutes  education.  Though 
American  teachers  are  greatly  inferior  to  the  German  in 
basal  education  and  specific  training,  they  are  much  nearer  a 
professional  status  in  service  in  so  far  as  this  involves  pro- 
fessional freedom,  initiative,  and  responsibility.  When 
release  from  the  college  shall  have  been  fully  accomplished 
the  high  school  will  be  in  a  position  to  address  itself  unre- 
servedly to  its  immediate  local  problem.  No  bureaucratic 
tradition  will  hamper  its  adjustment.  Its  success  will  depend 
largely  upon  the  extent  to  which,  having  selected  trained 
and  skillful  servants,  it  can  frankly  delegate  to  them  large 
freedom  of  action  together  with  the  corresponding  responsi- 
bility. Herein,  other  things  being  equal,  lies  a  distinct 
advantage  for  the  American  organization. 

Another  respect  wherein  American  schools  seem  wiser  than 
the  German  is  the  relation  of  the  sexes  in  teaching  —  the  out- 
growth of  our  custom  of  co-education.  If  American  ele- 
mentary schools  are  "  feminized,"  as  they  clearly  are,  the 
German  secondary  schools  for  boys  are  still  more  completely 
dominated  by  masculine  influence,  and  the  latter  may  prove 
to  be  a  social  weakness  as  great  as  the  former.  The  high 
school,  on  the  other  hand,  has  solved  that  problem,  and  can 
look  into  the  new  social  future  with  confidence  and  satisfac- 
tion. Segregation  may  properly  come  at  certain  points,  as 
in  numerous  vocational  courses,  or  at  certain  ages,  as  the 
result  of  clearly  proven  psychological  considerations,  but  in 
respect  to  the  main  thesis,  the  present  critic  finds  nothing 
praiseworthy  in  the  German  system  as  a  national  scheme  of 
education.  The  natural  and  constant  association  of  men 
and  women  in  the  instruction  of  boys  and  girls,  themselves 
in  natural  relations  throughout  their  school  life,  appears 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  135 

to  him  one  of  the  most  wholesome  and  effective  of  social 
prophylactics. 

These  are  by  no  means  the  only  respects  in  which  the 
American  institution  is  favored,  but  as  it  is  the  object  here 
to  deal  primarily  with  lessons  to  be  deduced  from  German 
practice,  it  will  be  necessary  to  focus  the  attention  upon 
these. 

An  important  feature  that  is  external  to  the  operation  of 
the  school  itself,  may  be  noticed  first.  In  Prussia  the 
Oberlehrer  is  eligible  to  a  pension  as  a  state  official  —  a  fact 
that  has  important  bearings  upon  the  development  of  the 
profession  as  a  life  career.  This  allowance  becomes  available 
if  necessary  after  ten  years  of  service,  being  one-third  of  the 
salary  enjoyed  at  that  time,  and  increases,  after  forty  years, 
to  three-fourths  of  the  highest  amount  received.1  The 
propriety  of  the  arrangement  is  so  obvious  to  a  German  that 
he  would  scarcely  think  to  question  it.  In  a  social  order  in 
which  change  of  occupation  is  peculiarly  difficult  and  life  in- 
surance is  distrusted,  a  state-guaranteed  allowance  becomes 
the  natural  solution  for  the  problem  of  retirement.  It  gives 
the  economic  side  of  the  profession  a  clear  sequence,  and 
enables  the  teacher  to  give  his  full  strength  and  untroubled 
attention  to  the  work  before  him.  In  America,  conditions 
are  somewhat  different.  Life  is  more  variable,  occupations 
are  more  flexible,  and  insurance  of  some  sort  is  almost  uni- 
versal among  the  higher  classes.  Nevertheless,  the  first  two 
conditions  are  not  permanent,  and  the  last  is  costly.  As 
social  relations  in  America  become  fixed  and  the  demands  for 
longer  training  are  fulfilled,  the  need  for  some  adequate  and 
reliable  provision  for  old  age  will  become  more  and  more 
acute,  and  must  be  met.  A  beginning  was  made  long  ago  hi 
teachers'  retirement  funds  of  various  kinds.  More  recent 
endowments  for  college  instructors  have  given  the  move- 

1  Beier,  op.  cit.,  pp.  998  ff . 


136  THE  OBERLEHRER 

ment  a  vigorous  stimulus,  and  its  progressive  development 
seems  assured. 

The  concrete  form  which  a  pension  provision  should 
assume  is  at  best  an  intricate  question.  Proposals  vary 
from  a  "  straight  "  pension  at  the  expense  of  the  city  or  state 
to  some  form  of  compulsory  insurance  in  which  the  teacher 
virtually  pensions  himself.  But  whatever  the  method  and 
form  of  pension,  it  is  first  of  all  exceedingly  important  that 
now,  while  the  field  is  relatively  clear,  the  essential  features 
of  an  effective  plan  should  be  worked  out,  and  the  adminis- 
tration of  it  undertaken  not  by  cities,  towns,  or  professional 
groups  but  by  the  states.  Quite  apart  from  its  bearing 
on  the  national  situation,  this  arrangement  is  necessary  in 
the  interests  of  educational  unity  and  simplicity.  The 
prospect  of  a  permanent  complex  of  varying  systems  and 
conditions  in  an  undertaking  that  is  essentially  one  and  that 
requires  the  most  competent  supervision  possible,  is  intoler- 
able. Secondly,  the  arrangement  should  be  such  as  not  to 
impede  free  transfer  of  the  teacher's  activity  from  state  to 
state  without  prejudice  of  claim.  To  accomplish  this  the 
state  provisions  must  be  practically  identical.  It  is  quite 
proper  and  desirable  that  a  teacher  should  divide  a  long  and 
active  life  among  several  states,  and  should  receive  from  the 
state  where  he  was  last  active  the  full  amount  of  his  pension. 
An  annual  clearing  of  such  mutual  obligations  between 
states,  each  bearing  its  due  proportion  of  a  given  pension 
allowance,  would  be  a  simple  matter.  Further,  to  secure  the 
adoption  of  a  uniform  plan  would  not  be  a  question  of  forty- 
eight  separate  campaigns.  Let  half  a  dozen  leading  states 
enter  into  an  equitable  pension  agreement  and  the  others 
would  follow  fast.  In  practical  operation,  such  an  inter- 
state pension  arrangement  would  be  a  powerful  educational 
unifier.  Not  only  national  interests  but  a  professional 
consciousness  of  national  scope  would  arise  out  of  a  general 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  137 

pension  plan,  especially  if  it  supplemented  the  national 
scheme  for  examination  and  certification  already  outlined, 
and  such  a  consciousness  would  in  turn  form  the  basis  for 
unimagined  progress. 

Turning  to  matters  directly  concerning  the  school  itself, 
three  points  may  be  mentioned  wherein  the  German  teacher 
has  apparently  distanced  the  American.  The  first  of  these 
is  supervision.  This  is  an  art  that  is  fully  developed  abroad, 
but  which  the  American  has  combined  with  so  many  other 
things  that  its  surpassing  importance  has  been  greatly 
ignored.  The  German  Schulrat  is  selected  for  his  profound 
knowledge  of  the  work  of  instruction,  and  for  a  personality 
that  secures  results  by  means  of  criticism.  He  has  served  a 
long  and  thorough  apprenticeship  as  Oberlehrer  and  Director, 
and  that  experience  comes  continually  into  play  as  inspector. 
It  is  of  the  greatest  value  to  have  a  really  qualified  and  active 
critic,  aside  from  the  principal,  to  vitalize  the  institution  from 
without.  The  American  school  superintendent,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  selected  primarily  for  his  business  capacity  and 
powers  as  an  organizer.  He  too  has  been  a  teacher,  and 
perhaps  a  principal,  "  but  not  too  long  "  lest  his  other  powers 
be  dulled.  He  regards  his  work  as  wholly  other  than  that  of 
teacher  or  principal  raised  to  a  higher  power.  Material, 
political,  and  social  concerns  are  likely  to  be  uppermost,  and 
what  supervision  he  can  give  affords  little  of  valuable 
instruction  for  the  teacher.  The  teacher's  object  is,  of 
course,  to  please  him,  but  not  necessarily  through  a  sound 
and  unobtrusive  pedagogy. 

There  is  room  here  for  improvement.  Not  that  the  super- 
intendent should  reform;  the  best  type  of  successful  Ameri- 
can school  superintendent  is  a  remarkable  product,  for  his 
position  is  a  remarkable  combination  of  difficulties.  To 
guide  his  schools  through  the  tangle  of  local  politics,  to  pro- 
tect them  from  meddlesome  interference,  to  readjust  them 


138  THE  OBERLEHRER 

to  ever-changing  social  conditions  and  maintain  them  as 
efficient,  responsive  servants  of  the  community  is  the  task 
for  a  genius,  and  should  unquestionably  be  entrusted  only 
to  a  single  well-selected  and  highly-trained  officer.  There 
should,  however,  be  at  least  one  expert  mind  working  solely 
at  the  educational  problems  of  any  given  group  of  schools. 
Departmental  supervisors  are  indispensable  but  are  quite 
unequal  to  the  work  here  demanded.  A  skillful  referee  for 
purely  educational  questions,  in  close  touch  and  sympathy 
with  the  superintendent  but  relieved  of  his  foreign  interests, 
would  be  of  incalculable  value  to  many  a  school  system. 
Occasionally  an  assistant  superintendent  exercises  this  func- 
tion but  in  most  cases  the  division  of  labor  is  made  along 
wholly  different  lines  and  this  pressing  duty  is  left  untouched. 
A  position  of  this  sort  would  possess  the  further  merit  of 
adding  an  important  step  to  the  ladder  of  promotion,  at 
present  excessively  narrow  and  short.  Could  a  teacher  or 
principal  feel  that  hard  work  and  efficient  service  contributed 
directly  to  a  better  equipment  for  a  higher  position  similar 
in  kind,  the  gain  would  be  considerable. 

The  second  point  to  be  noted  concerns  the  use  that  is 
made  of  the  teacher  in  the  distribution  of  school  work.  It 
has  been  seen  that  the  general  course  of  development  of  the 
Oberlehrer  has  been  from  a  one-sided  to  a  many-sided  knowl- 
edge of  the  pupil  and  his  performance.  He  has  gained  a 
sense  of  responsibility  for  the  child's  total  growth.  This 
development  has  been  greatly  promoted  by  two  features  in 
organization:  first,  all  teachers  have  two,  and  many  have 
three  subjects  which  they  are  prepared  to  teach;  secondly, 
every  teacher  is  expected  to  teach  with  equal  readiness  a  boy 
of  nine  or  a  youth  of  nineteen  and  all  the  grades  between. 
The  first  provision  insures  an  instructor  against  becoming 
blind  to  interests  outside  of  a  single  department,  —  an  optical 
condition  that  is,  alas,  of  exceedingly  common  occurrence  in 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  139 

over-specialized  high  schools.  The  second  secures  to  each 
teacher  a  feeling  for  the  natural  sequence  of  a  boy's  mental 
development,  and  stimulates  him  to  acquire  a  working 
genetic  psychology.  Both  principles  seem  thoroughly  sound, 
and  fundamental  to  the  most  intelligent  instruction.  The 
enforcement  of  them  depends,  to  be  sure,  on  a  broad  and 
thorough  preparation,  and  on  a  certain  high  conception  of 
the  teacher's  work  that  is  none  too  common.  But  it  is  pre- 
cisely that  conception  which  is  the  true  test  of  a  modern 
teacher.  To  the  old  type  of  teacher,  the  personal  ego  is  writ 
large  as  lord  hi  a  comfortable  little  field  on  which  no  other 
trespasses;  for  the  new  builder  of  youth  the  ego  tends  to  be 
supplanted  by  the  boy  before  him,  and  no  area  within  that 
lad's  horizon  can  he  afford  to  disregard.  The  four-year  high 
school  gives  less  opportunity  than  a  nine-year  Gymnasium 
for  instruction  over  a  wide  range  of  ages,  but  the  considera- 
tion has  weight  as  an  argument  in  favor  of  a  six-year  course 
where,  through  contact  with  pupils  during  the  entire  period 
of  adolescence,  a  teacher  may  win  a  clear  knowledge  of  their 
progressive  needs.  Diversity  of  subjects,  however,  is  appli- 
cable anywhere  if  sufficient  tune  be  taken  for  preparation. 
Rural  high  schools  and  academies,  to  be  sure,  have  neces- 
sarily made  this  diversity  too  great,  but  the  present  tendency 
of  large  city  schools  to  carry  specialization  to  excess  is  in 
serious  need  of  a  corrective. 

The  third  excellent  feature  in  German  school  practice  that 
commends  itself  for  emphasis  is  the  action  of  the  teachers  in 
their  collective  capacity.  The  idea  of  the  Kollegium  looms 
large  in  the  Oberlehrer's  thoughts.  To  be  kollegialisch  in 
conduct  is  a  cardinal  virtue;  it  means  to  have  a  sense  and 
disposition  for  "  team  work."  In  the  Gymnasium  it  takes 
the  place  partly  but  not  wholly  of  personal  loyalty  to  the 
principal  which  may  or  may  not  be  found  hi  the  American 
high  school.  The  powers  of  the  Kollegium  in  conference  are 


140  THE  OBERLEHRER 

not  great,  but  they  are  definite,  and  are  jealously  protected. 
In  America,  the  practice  in  different  schools  varies  widely. 
From  the  autocratic  principal  whose  teachers'  meetings  are 
little  more  than  office-hours  to  receive  weekly  reports  from 
instructors,  to  the  limp  executive  who  shifts  all  responsibility 
to  the  "  faculty,"  all  degrees  of  participation  are  found. 
There  is  usually  a  broad,  uncertain  field  of  administration  in 
which  the  real  powers  of  the  teaching  staff  are  left  in  doubt. 
The  experience  of  German  schools  would  seem  to  show  the 
wisdom  of  turning  over  certain  powers  once  for  all  to  the  in- 
structors and  of  holding  them  responsible  for  their  adminis- 
tration. This,  of  course,  assumes  trained  educators  who 
understand  their  business;  it  substitutes  for  the  military  or 
commercial  notion  of  one-man  power,  the  legislative  idea  of 
a  group  of  teachers,  having  equal  powers  and  rights,  and 
operating  upon  joint  conclusions  reached  through  conference. 
This  is  the  form  of  organization  in  the  German  university 
and  it  tends  to  spread.  The  Volksschullehrer  have  even 
reached  the  point  where  they  can  seriously  demand  the 
abolition  of  the  director's  position  altogether  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  a  "  collegiate  "  form  throughout,  with  an  elective 
head.  This  is  not,  at  present,  a  familiar  notion  in  America. 
Teachers  have  lacked  the  necessary  training  and  tenure  to 
make  them  efficient  colleagues  in  a  strictly  joint  enterprise. 
It  seems  not  unlikely,  however,  that  the  future  may  bring 
development  in  this  direction.  With  increase  in  professional 
training  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  administrative  officers  will  see 
the  wisdom  of  delegating  greater  opportunity  for  initiative 
and  responsibility  to  their  teachers.  With  tenure  on  a 
purely  merit  basis  such  a  distribution  of  power  would  prob- 
ably develop  unsuspected  strength  through  its  challenge  of 
professional  ambition. 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  141 

3.   Professional  Organization  and  Advancement 

For  the  professional  organizations  of  teachers  in  Prussia 
one  who  knows  the  facts  can  have,  on  the  whole,  only  feelings 
of  admiration.  That  these  associations  are  not  unattended 
by  characteristic  weaknesses  has  already  been  pointed  out; 
but  their  spirit  and  fundamental  purposes  are  good,  and  the 
results  that  have  flowed  from  them  to  bless  both  schools  and 
teachers  are  manifold.  The  successive  phases  of  their  activ- 
ity thus  far  appear  to  possess  a  certain  cumulative  signif- 
icance. Thus,  their  origin  in  times  of  economic  pressure  and 
unrest;  their  continued  struggle,  prolonged  until  a  stable 
social  equilibrium  was  achieved  for  the  class  which  they 
represented;  the  gradual  awakening  of  this  class  to  the  educa- 
tional possibilities  of  their  organization  in  the  interests  of  the 
schools  as  well  as  of  themselves;  —  these  three  clearly 
marked  stages  in  the  development  are  instructive.  It  must 
be  admitted  at  once  that  the  organization  demands  consid- 
eration for  the  class  as  a  class  without  sole  regard  for  the 
institution  that  it  serves,  but  in  the  modern  social  order  that 
is  inevitable.  It  is  unreasonable  to  expect  a  high  level  of  per- 
sonal service  and  ignore  the  great  group  to  which  that  service 
has  given  common  interests;  it  is  impossible  to  do  so  after 
the  group  has  come  to  a  common  consciousness  and  has 
organized.  And  organize  it  will  and  should,  following  the 
natural  tendency  of  any  similar  social  group  that  seeks  the 
mutual  understanding  and  collective  growth  of  its  members. 
Whatever  the  exaggerated  activities  of  partisans  of  this  or 
that  school-type,  or  however  unreasonable  the  demands  of 
the  organization  may  at  times  have  been,  no  one  can  doubt 
that  the  steady  social  elevation  of  the  German  teaching  class 
as  a  whole  has  been  of  immeasurable  benefit  to  the  schools; 
and  to  this  end  the  organization  has  largely  contributed. 
The  problem  is,  therefore,  to  unify  the  organization  and  make 


142  THE  OBERLEHRER 

it  fully  representative,  to  see  that  it  stands  for  the  best  pro- 
fessional ideals,  and  to  concentrate  its  great  strength  upon 
these  alone. 

In  America,  the  movement  toward  organization  is  still  in 
its  early  stages;  its  features  are  angular  and  sometimes 
repulsive;  but  in  the  light  of  German  experience  the  proper 
attitude  toward  this  development  on  the  part  of  all  concerned 
in  education  is  clear:  it  should  unquestionably  be  that  of 
sympathy,  encouragement,  and  cooperation.  An  economic 
purpose  may  be  at  the  core  of  the  initial  effort;  the  machinery 
for  union  may  have  been  repeatedly  set  in  motion  in  partisan 
interests;  this,  however,  should  be  the  greater  reason  for 
fashioning  ultimately  an  organization  that  will  serve  and 
represent  the  whole  group,  an  organization  membership  in 
which  is  the  primary  professional  duty  of  each  teacher. 
Such  a  representative  body  should  tend  to  conserve  the 
resources  and  vigor  of  the  organization  for  the  higher,  pro- 
fessional concerns. 

The  present  basis  of  union  is  the  city  system.  Each  city 
should  have  a  live  association  offering  such  benefits  that  no 
secondary  teacher  could  afford  to  withhold  at  least  a  formal 
adherence.  Its  meetings  should  be  devoted,  not  to  listening 
to  "  prominent  speakers,"  or  to  social  diversions,  but  to  first- 
hand attack,  through  competent  committees,  on  current, 
local  school  problems.  The  teachers  in  their  organized 
capacity  should  be  the  most  searching  and  convincing  critics 
of  any  school  administration;  from  them  should  spring 
"  surveys  "  and  "  enquiries  "  in  a  continuous  series,  the 
results  of  which  should  be  sufficiently  accurate  and  stimula- 
ting to  furnish  the  mam  source  of  educational  legislation. 
Such  activity  ought  to  be  warmly  welcomed  by  school 
authorities  even  though  it  prove  for  them  at  times,  uncom- 
fortable: the  Board  or  superintendent  that  can  meet  only 
by  repression  the  just  and  well-founded  criticism  of  those 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  143 

directly  concerned  is  not  well  chosen;  it  is  certainly  intol- 
erable that  teachers  should  be  obliged  to  make  the  preserva- 
tion of  a  passively  "  correct  "  attitude  their  first  concern. 

The  question  of  professional  advancement  or  extension  of 
training  is  likewise  a  matter  on  which  Prussia  is  qualified  to 
offer  profitable  suggestions.  Her  experience  and  practice  in 
this  particular  are  especially  rich,  as  has  already  been  seen. 
Consciously  fostered  by  the  government,  and  now  rapidly 
becoming  the  central  motive  of  activity  in  the  teachers' 
associations,  the  notion  of  continuous  mental  enrichment  is 
securely  fixed  among  secondary  masters;  it  has  become  a 
habit.  Each  school  has  for  its  teachers  a  separate,  well- 
chosen  professional  library  to  which  additions  are  continually 
made,  though  the  collection  for  the  pupils  often  presents  a 
forlorn  appearance.  The  Lehrerzimmer  is  stocked  with  the 
best  periodical  literature  in  education,  both  general  and 
departmental;  and  these  aids  are  used.  The  assistance 
granted  by  the  city  and  state  in  the  form  of  tuitions  or  travel 
grants  has  already  been  described.  It  is  thus  possible  for 
the  Oberlehrer  to  keep  in  fresh  contact  with  progress  in  his 
subjects,  and  occasionally  to  attend  vacation  courses  or  to 
make  a  prolonged  study-tour  without  expense  to  himself. 
All  this  results  from  full  official  appreciation  by  intelligent 
authorities  of  the  incomparable  value  of  this  mental  attitude 
in  the  instructors  of  the  nation. 

To  this  point  of  view  American  practice  has  not  yet 
attained.  The  bargaining  spirit  of  the  frontier  still  prevails. 
The  entire  burden  of  maintaining  the  quality  of  his  scholar- 
ship rests  with  the  individual,  and  no  favorable  provisions 
are  made  for  this  purpose.  If  he  can  "  deliver  the  goods  " 
at  his  own  cost,  his  place  is  secure;  if  not,  he  is  likely  to 
retire  after  a  more  or  less  painful  and  uncertain  period  of 
inefficiency,  unless  a  fixed  tenure  or  misplaced  sympathy 
bind  him  permanently  to  his  position.  The  school  authori- 


144  THE  OBERLEHRER 

ties  assume  no  responsibility  for  having  allowed  him  to 
become  or  remain  what  he  is;  it  occurs  to  them  to  say  only 
that  it  was  "  an  unfortunate  selection."  Nothing  can  be 
surer  than  that  a  radical  reform  must  be  initiated  in  this 
direction,  if  American  education  is  ever  to  achieve  its  pur- 
pose. The  main  stream  of  power  and  inspiration  is  being 
choked  off  at  its  very  source.  The  apathy  of  school  boards 
must  be  transformed  into  conviction  that  the  most  important 
thing  of  all,  in  school  management,  is  to  give  teachers  room 
and  a  chance  to  grow;  with  the  dawning  conception  of  what 
it  means  really  to  teach,  the  impulse  within  a  young  teacher 
to  deepen  and  broaden  is  almost  irresistible  and  must  be  kept 
free  and  productive.  One  of  the  greatest  public  benefac- 
tions that  a  munificent  citizen  could  conceive  would  be  a 
foundation  of  travel-grants  to  be  offered  to  high  school 
teachers  for  worthy  studies  of  strictly  school  problems,  and 
to  be  spent  in  the  further  investigation  of  such  problems. 
American  cities  as  well  as  German  should  have  aid  funds  for 
advanced  study.  They  should  give  all  teachers  free  tuition 
at  summer  courses,  and  at  least  an  indefinite  furlough  when 
they  are  able  to  do  special  work  at  their  own  expense. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that,  little  by  little,  the  better  high 
schools  may  become  stations  for  the  investigation  of  their 
own  peculiar  problems  by  their  own  corps  of  teachers.  The 
secondary  teaching  profession  is  developing  its  own  science, 
and  should  be  able  to  conduct  studies  of  value  on  the  spot. 
For  that  purpose,  relief  from  part  of  the  program  would 
be  a  welcome  opportunity  for  many  progressive  teachers 
even  at  a  reduced  salary.  Men  desirous  of  becoming  prin- 
cipals or  superintendents  could  thus  get  at  problems  of 
administration  directly,  or  those  seeking  supervisorships  in 
special  branches  could  secure  a  training  superior  to  the 
merely  theoretical  work  offered  in  higher  institutions.  A 
school  board  can  hardly  be  expected  to  grant  favors  for  those 


AMERICAN  APPLICATIONS  145 

who  use  them  as  steps  to  change  their  work  —  to  go  from  a 
high  school  to  a  college,  for  example;  but  where  such  efforts 
are  intensive,  and  concerned  directly  with  the  school  field, 
they  could  react  only  beneficially,  both  upon  the  work  of  the 
individual  teacher  and  upon  the  school  system  as  a  whole. 

Finally,  in  view  of  the  Prussian  example,  one  cannot  resist 
the  desire  to  associate  the  whole  question  of  intellectual 
growth  and  progress  in  service  with  the  organized  body  of 
teachers  themselves.  Who  but  they  can  conceive  and  expect 
to  realize  that  ideal  of  self -enlargement  which  is  the  condition 
of  all  worth  in  work  ?  Who  but  they  can  create  the  atmo- 
sphere they  need,  and  win  the  public  from  its  mediaeval 
notion  of  spiritual  goods  to  a  true  and  modern  view  ?  This 
is  preeminently  their  task. 


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